To (push and) pull from print
Publication made in collaboration with Natasha Brown | 2022
Natasha Brown and I came together to create a publication ready for activation in the ‘Publication’ event held at the Lethaby Gallery. The publication took the form of diagrams we made printed on layers of coloured/tracing paper and a scan of a folded piece of the original text that we worked on, all affixed together with a paper clip. It was a lot of fun churning our brains over inventing a pseudo-scientific theory of how texts are pushed and pulled from print, and where the eeriness of the Leftover transfers (a selective imprint).
Below is our accompanying text with the publication:
“Stephen King, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, published a novel called Rage, originally titled Getting it On but published as the former, in 1977. Following his belief that the novel had accelerated acts of violence or attempted violence, King allowed Rage to go out of print twenty years later.
We have published what we consider to be the “B-side” of Rage. These are the parts of the book that are not responsible for it being pulled, the bits that surround the violent acts, but fundamentally aren't the acts. Here, we propose that the sections that do “accelerate acts of violence” become ‘A’ and the language hovering around it is ‘B’. ‘A’ is the guilty unit that drives forward the supposed action, and is central to the writing. ‘B’, or the B-side, shadows ‘A’ tentatively with a peculiar attachment. Being Beside, ‘B’ lies idle until ‘A’ is ripped from the book’s core, a fresh wound buzzing with a magnetic potential.
And further, does ‘B’ miss ‘A’? And what does it mean to miss something still touching you, still there, but retracted inside of you?”
