After I write the first draft of a story I occasionally change the genders of the characters, which can reveal something new, something I hadn't thought of before. For my one-of-a-kind, 2012 artist book, Shadows of Language, I decided to create one very short story of communication, or miscommunication, and make two books, each with a different pronoun: What She Meant and What He Meant. How does that change how we view the speaker? I wondered. To keep the two books together, I created a hinged box for them. Underneath the books is a hidden well, containing all the words used in both books, cut out separately, that can be spread out and moved around by the reader to echo the books or make new sentences.
Shadows of Language
More book art videos at my channel, never mind.
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