Transgressing the Page - My next book headed for recycling as mail art

Comment

Comment by E on August 21, 2011 at 3:55pm

*-*

Comment by cheryl penn on August 21, 2011 at 3:31pm

I SO have to include all these comments in WHATEVER happens to this book :-) - Thom - MAN! Adagio for Strings - PERFECT! Thank you :-) XX You'll all be the first to receive a transgressed page from a transgressed book :-) X

Comment by De Villo Sloan on August 21, 2011 at 6:52am

Thom's rant would be a classic in the history of the IUOMA. Has a piece of art ever invoked such passion?

Comment by Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat) on August 21, 2011 at 5:31am

As with "The World is a Town" and your "Bones", you should "recycle" this to the world...just let the pages take off in flight (some landing in Greece, pleeezzzzz!) But record the deconstruction in a video performance, definitely. Perhaps the monkeys could help? It is a beauty, Cheryl, but i so understand your philosophy of breaking the pages and letting them out FREE..."to sing"!

Comment by Thom Courcelle on August 21, 2011 at 5:06am

Can't... contain... myself... must... COMMENT!!.. I, too, die just a little to think of such a masterpiece meeting the end of its life as its been known--or as viewers of the masterpiece have known it. We had a similar discussion about a piece of Marie's not too long ago that contained shredded material, and how the "essence" and it's "holiness" was logically still there despite not being in a traditional book format. (As artists we can "define" what makes a book, really... we have that license.)

This is where my imagination goes after seeing the photo of Cheryl's astounding document, and reading the previous comments: What if the world as we know it suddenly stopped today? The next great schism... the next big asteroid, and next wave of civilization, whatever. All the carbon life forms that make up our civilization are gone, and remaining are bits and pieces--records here and there, fuzzily decipherable nitbits of our civilization, are all that's left, INCLUDING Cheryl's book because it was in a bomb-proof safe at the museum (since someone tried to steal it just before the schism). The future archeologists are THRILLED. It's the frigin' Rosetta Stone of the future (they think)... the Dead Sea Scoll of their era. It becomes their Bible, and wars are fought over it, dissertations are written, civilizations created under its precepts.

Then I think back in the real world on OUR sacred and celebrated documents of civilization and wonder, "What if the Dead Sea Scrolls were really just some old mail art?"

Sometimes I know I put too much weight and preciousness on material things. I wish I was more like Cheryl in that regard. It's the age old philosophy of the Rising Phoenix--the phoenix dies in flames so that it can rise again from the ashes reborn and renewed. We can think about it this way: If Cheryl breaks-up the book and disperses it to the very corners of the world, those future archeologists will have an even greater adventure trying to put it all back together again. Also, if the book is "re-invented," if the book is re-written as a true palimpsest, if new and different ideas are presented, expanding and expounding on previous ideas, we may be changing the course of history...

I say divide the book and SAVE THE WORLD!

Also, I think De Villo's idea of creating a video archive of the act of the book's demise is a great idea. How would today's biblical scholars differ in their convictions if only there had been video evidence of all those monks through the dark ages as they made script errors while copying the Great Book? I only hope that you'll use Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" as the background music in your video documentation--it seems appropriately somber for the task. With greatest respect... I now yield the floor.

Comment by Lesley Magwood Fraser on August 20, 2011 at 2:18pm

That is SO South Africa.... a book being a security risk... what next??

Comment by Marie Wintzer on August 20, 2011 at 2:09pm

I believe it!! I would try too!!

Comment by cheryl penn on August 20, 2011 at 2:03pm

You wont believe it - they caught someone trying to steal this... It became a security risk or something ;-)))))

Comment by Lesley Magwood Fraser on August 20, 2011 at 2:01pm

I really think you are MAD to break this up! But you are mad, I forgot. I didnt know Jabulisa was finished, where do I collect my work? I didnt realise this was your Jabulisa piece, I had forgotten it.... now i am seeing the similarity in my little Sir Gawain boekie that I sent you.... I promise I wasn't plagiarising! Sir Gawain is an asemic piece. Hmmmm maybe I can use it for your Plagiarising book?

Comment by cheryl penn on August 20, 2011 at 1:30pm

EEEK!!! You two are giving me doubts!!!! BUT I think its doomed - poor book :-( - I DO feel sorry for it in a way - but it had Glory Days.  That should be enough for ANYONE!!! :-) X

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