A couple of months ago, Chuck Cave -- a book artist who had recently relocated to the area -- asked if I'd like to collaborate on a book with him for an upcoming show in Lithuania that he had been invited to participate in. Even though we hadn't (still haven't) known each other long, it was pretty obvious that we share some fundamental aesthetic ideas and approaches. We both like to invite chance into our work, and humor.
The result is a book we're calling Verso. We'll have more to share about it soon, but in the meantime here's a part of it in progress. Each copy in the edition will come with a unique 'errata' sheet that we create by altering a folded map page from a large atlas.
Today I've been working on my contribution to the first errata sheet, which will accompany the copy of the book we send for the show.
This page is inspired equally by Tom Phillips's classic A Humument, by Austin Kleon's black-out poetry, and by another of my all-time favorite bookworks, La Prose du Transsiberien... by Sonia Delaunay and Blaise Cendrars.
Below is the poem as I read it. If you read the poem on the image above, you might put the words in a different order depending on how you map out their relationships on the altered page...
"Sin"
Sin is vast. deserts and high mountains, lightly
rim the province
of
pivotal
1,800-mile-long
hands
Perhaps China is overworked.
Sin comprises one-sixth
of
Depression.
lows have been recorded.
Sin
is 505 feet below
the
inadequate.
the annual
Sin is
its
melons, seedless,
renowned throughout China.
Sin is isolated by
sheer distance, for centuries a
major means of contact with the rest of the world.
provincial, devoid, bare,
wastes,
drought, scrub,
desert, Dry,
dead
dead. Nevertheless,
life exists
streams
oases, great fertility.
oases are populated by people.
they have built intricate systems
in which various
areas
grow
Northern Sin, comprised of
10 inches of
mountains,
produces
large numbers of
major
discoveries.
The base has
been enlarged
near Ur
there are tanneries,
A number of mines
and
Europe.
A significant
Urumchi
finally
scheduled
the linkup
perhaps
