Ink on handmade paper, case bound
10″ x 7″ x 3″
2020
Crotch is a unique book of 108 ink drawn pages in a case binding, with contrasting slipcase. The interior is made of 27 A4 sheets bearing ink brush work on front and back; then folded and nested into signatures, creating “new” drawings by pairing different half-pages together. Most of the ink in the drawings sits in the gutter of the binding, hence the book title, Crotch. This word choice (rather than “gutter” or “binding”) intentionally links the book’s form to the body… but with a colloquial, even coarse suggestion. The closed book’s cover is formal and subdued, but with the boldfaced title, CROTCH. The juxtaposition of aesthetic with connotation creates intrigue without leading readers’ expectations. Once opened, readers are presented with a title page followed by 52 double page ink drawings. The drawings play with Asian ink calligraphy and expressive abstraction. The drawings are sometimes an integrated whole, other times the two sides are starkly different; but overall, they present no narrative sequence. Instead, they explore variation and the relation of recto and verso.
– Miranda Maher, Brooklyn, NY