Out There In Here by Emily Martin
A double tunnel book allows two parallel realities to be presented simultaneously: the artist's mother, victim of dementia, exists "in other places and other times"; the family sees a different and more troubling reality.
Emily Martin: "My mother has frontal lobe dementia. From the beginning her diagnosis was very troubling for her and the rest of the family. As time has passed and her dementia has progressed the family continues to note her deterioration and mourn her loss to us. She, however, is less and less aware of her changing state. She is more and more often in other places and times where she is busy and happy. None of us can follow her where she goes but there is nothing to be gained by trying to remind her of where she really is."
Colophon: "I made this book in response to the call for entries from the Guild of Book Workers for the Horizon exhibit. Long before the exhibit call, I had been trying to work out a vague idea of inside and outside. I knew there was something there but it wasn't enough at that point. When I started thinking about who might be inside and then outside and why, it began to coalesce....This is not the first book I have done involving my mother, and it will probably not be the last. My mother has always been one of my biggest supporters and I thank her."
Processes, Dimensions, and Edition Information
Iowa City, Iowa: Naughty Dog Press, 2012. Edition of 25.
Two tunnel books (10.5 x 10.5" each) bound facing each other within two unconnected orange cloth-covered boards (outside dimensions 10.75 x 10.75 x 1.25"), which allow the tunnel books to be opened and viewed concurrently. Paste papers, ink transfer drawings, and laser printing on Mohawk Superfine paper. Images in the left-hand tunnel laser printed then colored using paste paints and fingers. Images in the right-hand tunnel made using an ink transfer monoprinting technique. Text laser printed. Laid in a cloth covered clamshell box.