Book

Inscription: Signed and numbered on inside cover of pamphlet: "This is number "18" of 100 copies" // Linda Lindroth"; typescript label affixed to sleeve containing Magic Slate: "Dear Reader: // If you lift the plastic seet // on the Magic Slate the image // will disappear forever. // L.L."

Linda Lindroth

From the artist:
BOOK is a mixed media, limited edition artist’s book published in 1975 by Linda Lindroth. The book consists of a white cotton T-shirt, with a blue image photo-silkscreened on the front and folded to form the cover. Inside the slipcase is a 34-page offset duotoned printed book of 25 black and white photographs. The front page of the book has a tipped on copy of an original Polaroid SX-70 self-portrait of Lindroth in a mask. The book was funded by a 1974 grant from the NJ State Council on the Arts. It was produced in an edition of 100 copies. Lindroth sewed and silkscreened a vinyl slipcase for the contents. There is also a Magic Slate, a child’s toy, run through a card press imprinting an image on wax from an engraved printer’s plate. The artist intended the Magic Slate image to decompose over time citing the impermanence of early photographic images in a disclaimer included in each copy. The only text of the book (aside from copyright material) is a poem by Erica Jong used by permission.

Lindroth made all of the work for the pieces of the book including the photo-silk-screens. At the time of the book’s manufacture Lindroth took a course with Gordon Matta-Clark called Photo Silkscreen, Photo etching and Photolithography at the School of Visual Arts in NY. Eastern Press in New Haven, CT printed the offset booklet in 200-line screen suede tone.