Artist's Book Yearbook 2003-2005 - Book Arts - University of the ...

Some Reformations
Susan Johanknecht
The reforming of existing material and
structures is a strategy I would like to look at in
relation to some artists’ books. In particular,
how when a given context is changed,
subverted or deconstructed, new meaning /
readings arise which still retain an aura of
(or tension with) their sources. Just as a poet
might ‘write into’ an existing text, artists can
work into existing book formats. This process
engages with a reader’s expectations and
understandings of cultural codes. Examples
from my book shelf revealed a reformed
romance, cookbook, trade manual, church
pamphlet, school notebook, and philosophical
essay. I found reformed visual and textual material
where a single image was expanded into a
sequence, sound transcribed into words, text
taken from found objects.
Love Karen Reimer (writing as Eve Rhymer)
Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 1996
Love by Karen Reimer writing as Eve Rhymer
(Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 1996) is a
reformed romance. ‘Legendary, lexical and
loquacious’, this is ‘an adult romance for the
post structuralist woman’ the book jacket tells
us. The size of this book, the papers used, and
the design, all conform to those of a cheap
paperback romance. Which is what you expect
when you first pick this book up. Inside, it is
organised into 25 chapters, one for each letter
of the alphabet except ‘x’. Rhymer has taken all
the words out of an actual romance and
reordered them alphabetically. The plot is
irrelevant because we know it, or can guess it.
What we are given is the visual texture of words
on pages, or a text as sound poem.
33
“ninth nipped nipping nipple nipple nipple
nipple, nipples nipples nipples nipples nipples,
No No No No No -”
There are six full pages of the word ‘and’. We
can deduce the heroine is called ‘Anastasia’ as
this covers five pages, there are seven pages of
‘her’ and nine of ‘the’. We are led to question
how words as units relate to the novel as a
whole, and notice how limited the vocabulary
actually is. Knowledge of the genre informs our
understanding and enjoyment of this artist’s
book, which in turn operates as a literal
deconstruction of the Romance.
Sara Ranchouse is in a sense a reformed
publishing house, publishing artist’s book:
Westerns, Adventure & Mystery series, as well as
Romances and magazines, all made to look like
the ‘real’ thing. Sally Alatalo’s attention to
detail, in production values which exactly
mimic the look of familiar genres, is necessary
to successfully put across the analysis, humour,
and critical edge of these publications.
Another reformed format is White Trash Cooking
by Ernest Matthew Mickler published by Ten
Speed Press in 1986. I purchased this book
from a stand in a Birmingham, Alabama airport
shop, where it was perfectly and subversively
camouflaged among other cookbooks. The
same size, spiral binding, layout, and paper as
the others but different. Its recipes use
ingredients such as Oleo & Crisco, processed
cheese, condensed milk, Jello, and Reddi whip.
Below the individual recipes are comments
such as: ‘Mammy said: “If you got a yappin’ dog
or a hungry man this ought to shut’um up.”
Is this one even a recipe? “High Calorie pickme-up:
‘Pour a small bag of Tom’s peanuts into
a cold Pepsi. Turn it up and eat and drink at
the same time.”
Yet there are recipes in this book I remember
being taught in my (northern) American high
school home economics class, such as apple pie
made without apples. Mickler is working from a
base of cultural/culinary reality. In a sequence
of photographs at the centre of the book he
creates a visual narrative of place and poverty
in the rural South; dilapidated sheds,
unrecognisable food frying, still-lives inside
the refrigerator, battered utensils on the