Desire and the Importance of Failure
Atlanta: Nexus Press, 1996. Hardcover. Unpaginated folio in publisher's illustrated boards. Very Good. Item #28129
ISBN: 0932526535
This book is like a sacred memory: it visually carries the reader through a waking-dream state, offering doors through which one must enter and exit. This self-referential reverie in three movements contains images of mirrors and book covers that denote transitions from exterior to interior and out again. Between those reflections Keeley renders dresses, sheaths, baskets and other expressively-shaped vessels that overlap or extend photo transfers of the natural world; she responds intuitively to the character of flowing, gauzy fabric, speckled eggs in boxes, extinct plants and arcane medical illustrations. Gathering these curious images and placing them within a book-as-vessel, Keeley examines how they separate humankind from nature, how these containers may conceal passion and emotion. The deconstructed poetry of cultural theorist Deb Esch keeps quiet company with her wistful images and allows the book to be as easily read back to front in a way that recalls Keeley's first Japanese-structured books.
Price: $50.00