real-life stumbleupon #2: Roger Andersson

I was gift shopping at my favorite neighborhood bookstore a few weeks ago, where I stumbled upon an artist book by Roger Andersson, called Letters From Mayhem. The book features illustrated letters of the alphabet as part of a collaboration with New School writer-in-residence Albert Mobilio. The illustrations have a precious, ephemeral aesthetic and depict a miniaturized adolescence among various faunae. Here is his letter d:

D, from the book Letters From Mayhem

Cabinet Books, 2004

Roger Andersson

It felt peculiar looking through Letters, as it has the appearance of an over-sized children's storybook, with cardboard-thick pages and rounded corners. The simple form of the book had a strange, nostalgic power that kept pushing to transport me back to a child's frame of mind, yet I would be tipped right back out of it as the coming-of-age theme kept floating forward. Fumbling between the child/adolescent/adult headspace was not unlike my physical interaction with the book, which is about 10" square and 2.5 lbs. It was ever-so-slightly awkward, balancing the book while turning the big rigid pages, and having to do it slowly enough to get one page to let go of the next.

I'm really glad I found it.