Frightening Fare at the Fair
One of the more exciting aspects of a gathering such as Pyramid Atlantic’s biennial book fair is to see the synergy between projects made by artists independently. A new Visual Studies Workshop Press title, dedicated server The Genetically Modified Foods Cookbook by Christine Chin, as well as Laboratory Gardening: Building Your Own Food, an Activity Book, by Amanda D’Amico, Tiny Revolutionary Press, take on the subject of genetically modified food in unique ways, not least of which is their distinctive use of the book medium. Chin’s Betty Crocker-style cookbook shows our consumable fruits and vegetables with lips, eyes, fingernails, and ears. The sickening twist is the photographs depicting Chin’s recipes are so lush and attractive, her use of digital manipulation so seamless, that we hardly perceive what is so terrifying about this food. In D’Amico’s Laboratory Gardening we get wound up in less illusory ways. From the beginning the artist/author asks the big questions—“Why does the European Union have a ban on GMO imports? Why are grassroots activist groups protesting against them? Why do the words ‘Genetically Modified’ turn us off as consumers?” The book is made up of food growing research and diagrammatic illustrations for cutting out and connecting tabs to make your own, boxed food. D’Amico’s novel approach to the “activity book,” a wonderfully complex spin on food activism, and the heat applied by Chin’s grilling question—just what is happening to us as result of this food—created a stirring discussion on the potential of one-liners in artists’ books amongst a few of us in attendance. What makes the one-liner work, what makes it powerful? In my opinion, a one-liner works best with a straight face and when temporality is involved. I need to get set up to find the joke funny, in other words. Show me a book in the shape of its punch line and I’ll show you an artist who needs lessons in timing. Had Chin or D’Amico fed us their ideas in sculptural spoon shapes, for instance, the power of reveal would be lost, entirely.
Posted by Tate Shaw
Say No To GMOs!
GM Cookbook
Pressing Matter at the University of the Arts
VSW Press
