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Jin-shin Jiko

Item date(s): October, 2018

Veronika Schäpers  - (book artist)
Yoko Tawada  - (text by)
Margeret Mitsutani  - (translated by)


Pages: unpaged
Size: 480mm
Inscription: Signed by both artists.
Edition: #2/38


Place publication: Karlsruhe, Germany
Publisher: Artists Book
Exhibition 2022

Additional notes:
"Building on the Japanese term for personal injury, “Jin-shin Jiko,” or “human accident,” Yoko Tawada plays with words and syllables relating to body and soul, self and person, human and corpse, rhythm and silence. She gives a sound to the fast, orderly arrangement of local public transport in Tokyo’s subways – a machinery to which every passenger is subject, and one that is constantly being tested and perfected. Inspired by the station maps for individual lines that are posted in the corresponding train stations, the Japanese text is arranged vertically, alternating with the English translation, which is set horizontally on the reverse of each page. The two different reading directions create a dual format that is also repeated in the photographs preceding and following the text; the book can be viewed and read in landscape as well as in portrait format. The images show scenes from Tokyo’s subways, illustrating not only their inescapable-seeming closeness, but also the countless measures taken in the last few years to prevent incidents involving personal injury – such as barriers along the edges of the platforms, colored lights at the ends of the platforms, and emergency telephones."

Reference note:
Printing Technique: Letterpress-print by polymer plates.

Paper: Toshabangenshi, Tsuchi-iri-Mitsumatashi.

Book between card covers with title an the cover in English and Japanese.

Book held in card chemise with Japanese subway ticket held on the cover.

The whole in a Perspex slipcase within a folded-card box.

Exhibition notes:
Creative Research: The Artists’ Books of Veronika Schäpers, Robbin Ami Silverberg and Julie Chen JBCBA, WAM

22 September to 15 December 2022

Ref: GB/15868













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