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Michael Snow, The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and others

Cover to Cover

1974

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Physical Qualities Bound volume with offset lithographs, Book: 228 x 179 x 24 mm. (9 x 7 1/16 x 15/16 in.)
Credit Line Women's Committee Acquisitions Endowment for Contemporary Prints and Photographs
Object Number 2014.109
"Cover to Cover" opens a door to a unique form of storytelling. With no text except for an unconventional title page tucked several pages into the book, the photographic sequences shot by Keith Lock and Vince Sharp tell a story from different, yet simultaneous perspectives. The two photographers stand opposite each other with the subject between them, and each spread juxtaposes their parallel exposures. The storyline follows Snow himself on a journey from his house to his truck, and then to the Isaacs Gallery. It ends in a thrilling moment when Snow picks up a book and moves it towards the camera until it becomes the exact book the viewer is holding. Because the complex and cinematic layering of imagery flips upside-down halfway through the book, the reader is intentionally disoriented and intimately engaged with the possibilities of reading the book forwards and backwards, from left to right and vice-versa. A video of all the spreads in this book may be viewed on the nearby iPad.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2014; Sims Reed Rare Books, London
Rena Hoisington, BMA, "Off the Shelf: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books," May Gallery 2, March 12 - June 25, 2017.

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