The Fond du Lac Telephone Directory is a book within a book — an exact 244-page facsimile of the artist’s own telephone book for his hometown, printed soon after his birth. It is marked with extensive autobiographical notes and references, doodles, jokes and marginalia, and inserted with found materials and original notes, drawings and photographs. The telephone book is a complete, factual document of its own place and time, while the artist’s inserted work is a completely subjective document — his own way of seeing the same place over time, through the prism of his childhood, adolescence and adulthood, and now as an artist. The Fond du Lac Telephone Directory carefully combines and playfully juxtaposes these different ways of seeing to create a deeply personal, darkly humorous “other” book.
Self-published, 2014
Softcover, perfect bound with custom spine spacing
Slipcase with black linen exterior, blue interior and two inset images
8.5 x 10.5 inches (22 x 27 cm)
244 pages (68 white newsprint, 176 yellow bond paper)
42 inserts (37 b/w and color archival pigment prints, 5 notes and drawings, found stickers)
Each book features a unique back cover
Edition of 10 numbered examples and 2 artist proofs SOLD OUT
Gas Pains