Active Reading Project #1. Prose poem by Laura Wetherington. Installation view shows title page, binding, and modular shelving.
Active Reading Project #1. Prose poem by Laura Wetherington. Installation view illustrating gallery configuration using 3’ modular shelving with book for paging through at the end of the active reading experience, i.e. reading while walking.
Active Reading Project #1. Prose poem by Laura Wetherington. Installation view of book shows alternate configuration along one long wall extended 36’.
Active Reading Project #1. Prose poem by Laura Wetherington. Detail shows letterpress printed text on butcher paper with occasional typographic trips.
Inge Bruggeman
Reno Nevada
www.ingebruggeman.com
No one wants to play the victim no one when there is a gun involved and blue
2015
Letterpress printed from handset metal type on butcher paper
edition size of 15
48 pages
variable, recommended installation on 36′ of 3′ modular shelving, or on a pedestal with video monitor
3 x 12 x .75″
https://vimeo.com/172146180
video is 2 minutes 39 seconds, please view beginning and end, fast forwarding through middle if necessary.
No one wants to play the victim no one when there is a gun involved and blue, 2015, is an artist book in a long accordion format that is intended to be read while walking. The long prose poem within the book is letterpress printed from handset type on butcher paper in an edition of 15 copies. To experience it fully, the work is installed on 36’ of 3’ custom modular shelving so that the reader is physically engaged with the reading process. An important component of this artist book project is the video of the author, Laura Wetherington, walking and reading the book. This allows for people in remote locations to get a sense of one person’s experience reading the work, as well as for gallery spaces that are unable to stretch it out to its full length. The viewer can see how the author embodies the poem while walking.
No one wants… is the first artist book in my relatively new Active Reading Series. This series of work will be made up of 3-4 artist book projects investigating the physical nature of reading the material book. The project explores how we digest, retain, and embody information. Each artist book in the series will attempt to engage the reader physically in different ways, underscoring the idea that reading a physical, material object in a particular way can connect the reader profoundly to its content. It attempts to realize the book’s potential for a heightened reading experience, creating an embodiment of the text through an exaggerated physical experience with a material object.
In this particular instance walking with the poem sets a different pace for the reader and the reader’s attention is focused quite differently when engaged with the text in this way.
I am currently working on a French translation of this work to exhibit it in France in Spring 2018.
https://vimeo.com/172146180
If you can only watch 2 minutes of the 2 minute 39 second video, I would recommend watching the first minute, fast forwarding, then watching the end.