For the next several days textoftheday is showing samples from a recently completed artist book project by Jude Walton. An Officially Dead Book (2006-2010) was buried, exhumed, photographed, and its demise recorded by the artist after she came across a book entitled Officially Dead in a secondhand bookshop in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia in August 2006. The book, written by Quentin Reynolds, is the story of a Commander C.D. Smith during the Second World War. After reading it, Walton buried it in the garden, marking the spot with a large stone, on September 3rd 2006. She then began a process of exhumation and reburial. The samples shown here reveal some of that process. A selection of photographs was also printed and made into an accordion hand folded book by Jason Workman, keeping the same dimensions of the original.
1 comment:
I certainly don't see this destruction of a book just to take pictures of it as it is destroyed, as art. It has about the same appeal as a child destroying his toys or burning ants with a magnifier.
Columbus Darwin Smith, the captain of the USS Wake and the subject of the book is a distant cousin of mine. I was searching the web for information on him for a blog post when I came across this sad excuse for art.
Jeff Smith
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