In a nutshell [see the press release for more specific information], an individual decided to deface several books of the San Francisco Public Library's circulation inventory. The majority of the volumes targeted were on topics pertaining to gay/lesbian issues, HIV/AIDS, and women's health issues. This person was apprehended, charged, and convicted of a hate crime, but that didn't change the fact that there were something like 600 books that would be pulled from circulation! Reversing Vandalism is the result of the question: "What to do with all of these books?" In 2003 the books were offered to any artist who wanted to participate in turning a work of hate into a work of art. I heard about the project through the Altered Books group at Yahoogroups, and immediately sent in my request form, not quite sure what I was going to do with the book once--if--it came.
While I waited for whatever to come in the mail, I wondered what
I would do with, say, a book specifically on some aspect of the gay lifestyle.
Wouldn't you know it I (a heterosexual, not even curious female) received this
book:
with the
following inner damage: 
now just what was I going to do with "a gay,
bisexual, or questioning man's guide"? What I do best, break it down into
a format I can work with and go from there!
The first thing I needed to do was come up with a theme. What I decided pretty quickly was that I would take the main idea "Coming Out" and turn it around to a more general point of view: what all kind of things do we come out of? Several brainstorming sessions and then a pairing down to a workable number of main ideas yielded the following eight pages which are made up of separated blocks of pages, usually a chapter each.
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1-the ClosetNow, I know it seems a little obvious, but I figured it was the first thing that came to my mind and it would be the first thing that came to anyone else's mind as well, so might as well deal with it first thing. Not only that, but the vandal's slice across the cover and first chapter created a diagonal cut that reminded me very much of a staircase, the kind of staircase that might have a closet built in to make the most of the empty space underneath. The front and back of the page block were covered with wallpaper, and a small niche cut into the front. The door is made of more wallpaper secured with real hinges, the knob is a glass bead. Inside the closet are small drawn and colored figures of a coat on a wire hanger, galoshes and a broom. Surprised? Maybe expecting a gay icon or something similar. Let's face it, a closet is a place you hide things . . .it's not a place for people. When you turn to the back of the page the question is posed: and just ¿what? were you expecting?
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This was probably one of my favorite pages
to work on, and one of the more challenging. The outer cover is, again,
wallpaper, and the silhouette is freehand. The words trapped in the brain
are cut from the pages of the book and have monofilament sandwiched between
them, holding them in place between the plastic windows.It's pretty-much
straight-forward in its depiction of what my image of a confused mind
would look like: topics and questions floating around. On the back are
the main points: who, what, where, where, how and why. |
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Shell is the last of the shaped pages,
but the second interactive page. This was another page I had a real vision
for before I started and I was very pleased at the end result. After cutting
the shape (which is reminiscent of a scallop shell) I collaged the front
third with wall paper and cut-out shells and painted the back third the
rusty red that I sponged over the collaged front. The center section had
a large chunk cut out so that the fish, suspended on monofilament, would
slip into. Then the middle section was adhered to the back. |
The backs of the fish I knew would have
some sort of person on each, but when it came time to draw them faces
seemed the most fitting and in keeping with the lines. The filament lines
are actually tied into the inside cut edge and the fish tails are meant
to stick out just enough to see them. For the thought-provoking portion
of this page, along the back outer edge the words "what draws you
out?" are written. |
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Blue is a bit of a palate cleanser from the busy,
interactive pages that had gone before.and will come after. Out of the
blue is one of those sayings that flits around one's head and applies
to so much, it was a natural inclusion for the book. The pages were painted
and then dappled with more paint with crumpled cellophane. The only word
to appear on the front of the page is 'over->' at the bottom right,
and the back boasts my turn of phrase on the original, "oops, I ran
out of the blue." |
Another purely visual page, Rock has (I
think) a lot going on and it might actually be easy to miss the little
buried treasure in the layers at the bottom. Originally I thought about
a large rock, like this boulder that resides in one part of my town, that
lifted up to reveal something, but I already had at least one other page
like that already planned, so I just made a "rock" wall from
wallpaper squares and dimensional paint "grout." Trapped in
the earths layers you find buried treasure and a skeleton (maybe dinosaur?),
but there's also a trio of hazardous waste. The back spells out dig deeper
on more of the rock wall segments, with the bottom line: until you find
what you weren't looking for. Introspection is good,
even when what you find may not be. There, my deep thought for the entire
book. |
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6-Outside the BoxAnyone and everyone has probably heard the catch-phrase of the nineties: Think outside of the box. Personally, I've always found boxes comfortable: you know where you boundaries are. But boundaries are not always a good thing and one thing I've definitely learned in doing this book is that some things have no boundaries! I was going for a blueprint-style background with the blue pencil cubes on white tracing paper layered over the painted-white pages. The blue corrugated paper is set into a shallow niche and houses a faux stone inscribed with the word 'think.' The box-flap top unfolds to show the rest of the phrase. A vellum tag hangs from the bottom flap urging the reader to open the box. |
7-Frying PanDefinitely a fun page to put together! The flames on the main page are actually made from folded back pages torn out from the center and painted in red and yellow with a little bit of gold glitz thrown in for good measure. The eggs are painted on the back of the vellum and mounted in the flames, but only after their negative was cut out of the frying pan painted on the vellum overlay. The overlay is then affixed with a line of glue along the top of the page above a score line, for easy lifting. Along the rim of the frying pan is the first part of the phrase "out of the frying pan..." and the underside of the overlay in a similar position is the rest "and into the fire." Turning to the back shows a pure-black background with writing only on the bottom: it only gets hotter from here. |
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And this, the piece de resistance, the last page of the book. Both trial and triumph, this was what made the cigar box not deep enough and also needed reworking in the final equation. I started out planning this with two niches cut out: one for the battery pack and one as a frame. Sandwiched in the middle of the page block is the middle image of the bulb and the words, with a string of mini-lights ringing the opening in the rear of the page block. The first part of the Chinese Proverb frames the window: you can either curse the darkness or . . .. With a flip of the switch we see, shadow-screen style, the outline of a light bulb and the rest of the Proverb: turn on a light. The buttons mark the corners of the flap that lift to replace the batteries in case its new owners are like me and like flipping the switch! |
Well, from the very beginning I knew that, being a softbound book, there was a good chance the book would not hold together after the pages were complete, so I planned to take them apart and reassemble once the book was finished. This plan included a cigar box and bead-chain in the final equation. As you can see from the pictures at the top of the page, I used the cover, mosaic-style, to cover the majority of the cigar box. I did rearrange the title to read Every Day Coming Out, the letters elevated a bit with the use of mounting foam. Four holes were drilled the same heights as the two holes punched in all of the free-range pages, and silver bead-chain threaded in toward the book. Each page was then threaded on the chain, with a vellum flyleaf in between each to protect the integrity of each page and keep the eye from completely wandering to the next page before fully seeing the first.
The last step was to create the table of contents page, which I made by scanning in the Due Date tag found in the inside cover of the book and enlarging it, then printing the titles of each pages in different fonts on a vellum overlay. Under that is a small piece of vellum with my personal note and signature. The box does not completely close, but good books never do. This was my first start-to-finish altered book and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Soon it will be turned over to the San Francisco Public Library for, hopefully, inclusion in the Reversing Vandalism Exhibition in 2004.
© 2003 Jennifer Walker, all rights reserved
