Thursday 4 May 2017

Nine No Room at the Inn Blocks

As far as I can tell it all started in 1993 with Armenian-American artist Nina Katchadourian. She called her project “Sorted Books.” She would start with a library – public or private – and collect books with titles that in some way caught her eye. These she arranged vertically with the spines facing forward sandwiched between backward-facing books. She then photographed and shared the result. Today it’s an artform called “Book Spine Poetry.” Book spines are stacked horizontally so the titles can be read top to bottom, their combination forming some new meaning. Sometimes they create a haiku; occasionally they rhyme. Like most poetry, they may startle, amuse, set a mood or provoke thought. One of my favorites (wish I’d thought of it) is, “My Dad is Big and Strong, BUT...I Am a Tyrannosaurus.” Here are two from my own shelves:

2 comments:

  1. Love this block! I'm going to have to give this block a try. It looks great in multiples. The 1930s repro prints are perfect for this.

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  2. I'm so glad you like it. I was originally thinking of rendering it in two contrasting near-solid prints. But I have SO many 30's scraps lying around...

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