 |
Production Narrative
by J. Drucker
This book shows much about its production in the final form. The evidence of direct drawing on plates to produce some of the wonderful crayon marks in blue and red, the use of ruby-lith to create areas of color, the collage sensiiblity that is absolutely crucial in Laxson's visual idiom, and the combination of photographic, hand-drawn, and found elements reproduced photographically but translated into red, blue, and grey values is handled with exceptional skill.
Critical Analysis
by J. Drucker
Design Features
typographic: Collaged found type, letraset, hand written and calligraphic writing, scratched negatives/film, typewriter, rubber stamps, and pen and ink -- any and every variety of writing shows up in this book.
imagery: Found, collaged, handdrawn, rephotographed -- images of bomb, fruit, scenes, figures, music, scores, people, diagrams, the world recorded and transcribed are all richly represented.
graphical: Every page is distinct and the use of color against white paper to create space in a dynamic manner is worthy of careful examination and study. Few artists in book work have her graphical imagination.
openings: The creation of space within each opening is imagined freshly over and over again.
turnings: Surprise at every turn.
development: Certainly the book changes and evolves in is evaluation of the madness of human folly.
sequence:
textual: The texts are fragments and statements, polemics and free associations of bits of language gathered like the imagery from any and every facet of contemporary life.
structure:
conceptual: This is an idea driven but materially realized work.
intratextual: Text and image are not distinct categories in this book, every element has both a graphical body and a semantic value.
scultpural features:
temporal features:
other features:
Critical Discussion
An exceptional work, this book is as imaginative in its graphical and textual engagement with the codex as it is in its dialogue with the vagaries of culture. The use of minimal means -- red, blue, and values of grey -- to create an active field of dynamic production is itself remarkable. But it is the combination of lightly handled but deft critique and the visual imagination of the work that distinguishes this piece. All of Laxson's work has these idiomatic characteristics, as she has developed a graphic method that is elastic and inclusive, eclectic and yet specific, and her ability to incorporate fragments of material within a whole that manages its own unity is remarkable. The graphic means by which space is constituted in these pages is enough to provide a fous for study. But it is the integral intertextual complexity of the whole that really makes this such a rich book.
Detailed Analysis
 |
General Comments
[]
[Ho+Go]2=It
title note: The title reads as a version of a chemical formula that has been altered to be about culture. [J.Drucker]
Agents
Ruth Laxson
type: initiating
role:
artist
author
designer
dates:
birth: 19--/00/00
note: []
Clifton Meador
type: other
role:
printer
Nexus Press
type: initiating
role:
publisher
Ruth Laxson
type: initiating
role:
artist
author
designer
dates:
birth: 19--/00/00
note: []
Clifton Meador
type: other
role:
printer
Nexus Press
type: initiating
role:
publisher
Publication Information
edition type: editioned
publisher: Nexus Press
place: Atlanta, Georgia
dates:
publication: 1986/00/00
edition size: 500
note: []
Measurements
horizontal: 8.25 inches closed
vertical: 10.75 inches closed
Production Information
production means:
offset (local)
binding: hand sewn (local)
substrate:
bookBlock: paper Mohawk Superfine
media:
ink (local)
other materials:
Appearance
general description: A nicely made object with an intriguing paper cover and flap.
format: codex (AAT)
cover: Paper over boards, with a very nicely designed flap and bit of patterned paper that connects the interior and the covers.
color: yes
devices:
enclosures:
item:
Content
pagination: unpaginated
numbered?: unnumbered
signed?: unsigned
Colophon
Copyright Ruth Laxson -- 1986 Atlanta, Georgia, ISBN 0-932526-10-1, 500 copies of (Ho + Go)2=It were printed at Nexus Press in the spring of 1986 - with special thanks to Clifton Meador, director, for the printing and technical assistance. The images were drawn on mylar and transferred to positive plates then printed offset on Mohawk superfine. The book was funded in part by a grant from the DeKalb Council for the Arts. Contributing support for Nexus Programming is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Georgia Council for the Arts, Bureau of Cultural Affairs -- City of Atlanta and Fulton County Arts Commission. Additional support is provided by the Lubo Foundation and Air Atlanta
Exhibition Information
exhibition history:
reception history:
Related Documents
manuscript type: mockups
location: other unknown
note: They must exist.
General Comments
[]