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Anatomy of Insanity

Item date(s): 2008

Maureen Cummins


Pages: unpaged
Size: 323mm
Inscription: Signed by the artist
Edition: AP/30


Place publication: Women's Studio Workshop
Publisher: Artists Book
Cat. 178-C9-9
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
With typographic assistance from Kathy McMillan. Printing was done on site at Women's Studio Workshop, as well as at Longwood University. The artist would especially like to thank Mr. Amos Paul Kennedy for providing a clean, well-lit space and a shiny new SP-15.

All the textual and visual elements within the book were letterpress printed onto Trace 51 using photoengraved plates. The illustrations included are victorian trade-cuts, advertisements, and other vintage found images, as well as drawings by the sixteenth century anatomist, Andreas Vesalius.

All "data" presented within the book is authentic, taken directly fom original patient records spanning the years 1819-1843. Research for the project was conducted by the artist in the archive of McClean hospital, one of the first mental hospitals founded in the United States.

The book is presented in a blue three-quarter leather bound folder with the pages fixed with two grommets at the top on both the recto and verso sides. It is accompanied by a large bulldog clip.

Illustrated with essay by Elizabeth Long in JAB25. The JAB Critic's Award 2008 Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair.

Illustrated on p21 of Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art by Betty Bright, 2012.

Exhibition notes:
Item 0178 - C9-9 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.

UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg

25 March to 5 May 2017



Ref: GB/13219











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