Read (past, tense)

Weston, Heather

Heather Weston

2000

Artists' Books

Handsewn in red cloth over boards. Cover title of raised and impressed letters, seen from below the surface of the cloth, extends the theme of text and subtext.

This highly unusual artist's book uses heat-sensitive ink, that relies on the reader's inevitable contact with the page, to explore the ordinary and uncomfortable phenomenon of blushing. At first sight, the book contains a text that is reversed (white) out of red ink—like letters incised into a surface. But as the reader handles the book, the warmth from her fingers causes the ink to fade, revealing a private and intimate text, between the lines. The reader has to actually feel her way around the primary text, to get the full picture. Rationale gives way to inner dialogue. The calm, reasoned voice of, " I f I'm honest, I think I was put off by my rather disarming tendency to blush. At the slightest thing. I t always perplexed me," covers subconscious embarrassment: "Never do this again. Avoid this at all cost. Confusion and distress cloak themselves in shades of nonchalance. It's only a colour. I'm fine. Really." The interaction of the materials informs the process of reading and the unraveling narrative. from Vampandtramp.com

English

4 x 4.75”; 16 pages.

Offset lithography

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