Production Narrative

by J. Lyons

Forthcoming.

Critical Analysis

by E. Rettberg

Design Features

typographic: The narrative at the top of the page is differentiated from the narrative at the bottom of the page by the fact that the top font is italicized while the bottom is small caps. The "found typography" of the personal documents catalogued in the middle of the spreads adds a textual cacophony to the page's middle in contrast to the ordered linearity of the narratives.

imagery: The mundane images of receipts and other wallet documents get new life when the narrator reveals how much they can reveal about her personal history.

graphical: The reader's steady progress through the narrative is echoed in the final pages' bus, which ends up turning back upon itself much like the reader must return to read the second narrative.

intratextual: The two lines of text speak to each other at the same time as they seem to explore two different thematic fields, one centered on race and the other on gender.

Critical Discussion

The book traces the discovery of one's own past through a found personal archive at the same time as it monitors a change in how the larger society views women and racial stereotyping.

Twenty-Five Years Ago

Agents

Joan Lyons

type: initiating

role:
artist
author

Publication Information

edition type: editioned

publisher: Visual Studies Workshop Press

place: Rochester, NY

dates:
publication: 1998-00-00

edition size: 250

Measurements

horizontal: 7.875 inches closed

vertical: 9 inches closed

depth: .125 inches closed

Production Information

production means:
xerographic (local)

binding: saddle stitching (AAT) Stapled, with the outer covers affixed to the paste using glue.

substrate:
bookBlock: paper

media:
ink (local)

Appearance

general description: The dominant design feature on the outside of the book are the two larger-than-life photographs of a woman's wallet, closed on the front and open on the back. Inside, two rows of text on black fields at the top and bottom of each page frames photocopied scraps of paper.

format: codex (AAT)

cover: On the front, an oversized color photograph of a burgundy wallet; on the back, the same wallet, closed.

color: yes On the covers, yes; inside, b/w.

devices: None.

Content

pagination: unpaginated 20 unnumbered pages

numbered?: unnumbered

signed?: signed

Colophon

First edition, 250 copies printed on a digital copier.