Johanna Drucker's Artist Books
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Against Fiction: Organized Affinities As No Storm or the Any Port Party Bookscape Combo Meals Cuba The Current Line Damaged Nature / Salvage Culture Damaged Spring: Pink Noire Dark Decade Dark, the Bat Elf Visits the Pupae Diagrammatic Writing Deterring Discourse Dolls of the Spirit Downdrift Emerging Sentience Events: Particle Zoo Experience of the Medium Fabulas Feminae The Fall Fragile From A to Z From Now The General Theory of Social Relativity A Girl's Life Graphical Investigations History of the/my Wor(l)d It Happens Pretty Fast Italy Jane Goes Out w' the Scouts Just As Kidz Narratology Netherland: [How] So Far Nightcrawlers on the Web Nova Reperta Off-World Fairy Tales OTHERSPACE: Martian Ty(p)ography Prove Before Laying Quantum 'S crap 'S ample Sample Dialog Simulant Portrait Spectacle Stochastic Poetics Subjective Meteorology The Surprise Party Or Testament of Women Three Early Fictions Through Light and the Alphabet Tongues: a parent language Twenty-six '76 The Word Made Flesh
by Date
Dark, the Bat Elf Visits the Pupae (1972) As No Storm or the Any Port Party (1975) Twenty-six '76 (1976) Fragile (1977) From A to Z (1977) The Surprise Party Or (1977) Experience of the Medium (1978) Netherland: [How] So Far (1978) Kidz (1979) Dolls of the Spirit (1980) Italy (1980) Jane Goes Out w' the Scouts (1980) 'S crap 'S ample (1980) It Happens Pretty Fast (1982) Tongues: a parent language (1982) Against Fiction: Organized Affinities (1983) Just As (1983) Spectacle (1984) Through Light and the Alphabet (1986) Bookscape (1988) Sample Dialog (1989) The Word Made Flesh (1989) History of the/my Wor(l)d (1990) Simulant Portrait (1990) OTHERSPACE: Martian Ty(p)ography (1992) Deterring Discourse (1993) Narratology (1994) Three Early Fictions (1994) Dark Decade (1995) The Current Line (1996) Prove Before Laying (1997) Nightcrawlers on the Web (2000) Nova Reperta (2000) Emerging Sentience (2001) Quantum (2001) A Girl's Life (2002) Damaged Spring: Pink Noire (2003) Cuba (2005) Damaged Nature / Salvage Culture (2005) Events: Particle Zoo (2005) From Now (2005) Graphical Investigations (2005) Subjective Meteorology (2005) Testament of Women (2006) Combo Meals (2009) Stochastic Poetics (2012) Diagrammatic Writing (2014) Fabulas Feminae (2015) Downdrift (2018) The Fall (2018) The General Theory of Social Relativity (2018) Off-World Fairy Tales (2020)

Fabulas Feminae

2015

❮ ❯


Project Statement


The second of the collaborations with artist Susan Bee, this was a series of verbal-visual portraits of women we admire and felt were worthy of being presented in portraits. I wrote the texts as if I were a compression algorithm, taking a wide range of biographical material for each figure and processing it for frequency, vocabulary, and unique phrases. The texts were set in InDesign as profiles picking up on the formal features in Susan Bee’s collage works. The language has a vivid quality, dense and suggestive, meant to live up to the pitch and intensity of the visuals.

Work

Agents

Johanna Drucker

type: initiating

role:
author
designer


Susan Bee

type: initiating

role:
artist

Publication Information

publisher: Litmus Press

dates:
production: 2015-06-30

publication history: Litmus Press is the publisher, and Susan Bee was my collaborator.

Aesthetic Profile

movement:
conceptual (AAT)

subject:
feminist history
artists' books (LCSH)

themes: Famous women.

content form:
prose and images

publication tradition:
cartists' book (local)
illustrated book (local)

inspiration: The women.

related works: A Girl’s Life, Testament of Women.

other influences: Women's biographies

Related Documents

manuscript type: texts

location: Beinecke Library, Yale.


manuscript type: mockups

location: Beinecke Library, Yale.


manuscript type: other

location: Beinecke Library, Yale.

note: Paintings and drawings are in the artist's archive (Susan Bee).