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Cry Uncle

Item date(s): 2008

Frances Jetter  - (book artist)


Pages: unpaged
Size: 480 x 625mm, oblong
Inscription: Signed by the artist
Edition: #14/15


Place publication: New York
Publisher: Artists Book
Cat. 228-C8-8
Exhibition 2017

Additional notes:
Housed in a decorated canvas bag with a zip at the top (560 x 650mm).

From the arist's description:

Cry Uncle an expression used by bullies to demand submission of the other, is the title of this 23-page accordion fold book, a graphic response to man's inhumanity to man in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and Bagram.

In 2009, I wrote, designed and illustrated "Cry Uncle", which begins in the Orwellian "Ministry of Love," "where they have ways to make you talk."

A canvas sack holds a portfolio covered with thin, creased, fragile-looking Nepalese paper resembling human skin. 11 images carved from 18" x 24" linoleum blocks, and the larger letterpress text from old wooden letters, were printed on translucent, handmade Japanese paper, allowing the viewer to glimpse the shadow image of what came before. Unfolded, the book is over 40 feet long.

My work focuses on telling stories in pictures. Political subject matter, not only to protest and document, intrigues me as an exploration of human nature.

The way type looks and sounds as it becomes a character's voice interests me, as well as how language changes meaning by modifying scale or font.

The zippered red mouth on the sack that hold the book is the beginning and end of the story; the torturer's lips are sealed.

Exhibition notes:
Item 0228 - C8-8 on Booknesses: Artists' books from the Jack Ginsberg Collection.

UJ Art Gallery, University of Johannesburg

25 March to 5 May 2017



Ref: GB/13398













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