Production Narrative

by J. Drucker

The production of this book should have been fairly easy, but somehow the two-sided laser printing ended up causing problems. Maybe the ink and paper overheated, causing jams in the printer, or else it was the curl of the paper caused by the heat of the digital printer that made the paper feed badly, but it wasn't easy at all. The use of a scanner to make the images was liberating, and the text design and book design were meant to create a small, compact little work. Binding was easy, and the edition would have been bigger it if hadn't been for the nuisance of printing.

Critical Analysis

by J. Drucker

Design Features

typographic: Stymie, always a great idea, though in this case, in the Mac font form of Memphis, I believe. Square serifs have such a striking boldness to them. I love the "Egyptian" faces.

imagery: From newspapers, as is often the case, in this situation, distorted by having the originals manipulated on a scanner and then in Photoshop.

graphical: A tight, clean page layout that allows text and image equal weight.

Critical Discussion

Another of the dark books, necessarily so, as they are responses to the state of public discourse and culture. This book was intended to circulate with a certain freedom and autonomy, rather than to live in the rarified world of artists' books. The small size, short paragraphs, dense language, suggestive and provocative images and color of the covers were all highly contemporary.

Deterring Discourse

Agents

Johanna Drucker

type: initiating

role:
author
printer
artist

nationality:
born: United States
active: United States
citizenship: United States

dates:
birth: 1952-05-30

Publication Information

edition type: editioned

publisher: Druckwerk

place: New York, NY

dates:
production: 1992-00-00:1993-00-00
publication: 1993-00-00

Measurements

horizontal: 4.5 inches closed

vertical: 5.5 inches closed

depth: .1 inches closed

Production Information

production means:
digital laser (local)

binding: hand sewn (local)

substrate:
bookBlock: paper

media:

Appearance

format: codex (AAT)

cover: The cover is orange neon paper with the title, Deterring Discourse, printed in black upper-case characters at the top. Five arrows splay out underneath pointing towards and away from the title.

color: no

Content

pagination: unpaginated 30 pages

numbered?: unnumbered

signed?: unsigned

Colophon

Produced in an ongoing edition on Mac and LaserWriter somewhere between the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993. For information: J.D.; 601 W. 115th Street #94; New York, NY 10025

Exhibition Information

exhibition history: None in particular, only in shows of all my books.

Related Documents

manuscript type: texts

location: artist's archive

manuscript type: mockups

location: artist's archive