Of the Forest: three books from “Land Line” series

Some years ago at a Paris bouquiniste, artist Richard Kraft found a tattered copy of Robin des Bois, a 1937 French children’s book narrating the legendary tale of the English outlaw Robin Hood. Kraft began perforating the book’s color plates and line drawings, then layering them with original and appropriated photographs, art historical works, comics, and other incongruous materials. One series of collages metamorphosed into another, ever multiplying.

At the start, Kraft shared a few works with three writers—Mónica de la Torre, Danielle Dutton, and Elizabeth Zuba—and invited each to use any aspect of the collages they desired as a departure point for a new piece of writing. The collages and writings were conceived and composed independently, without consultation or any particular expectation. Once complete, each was paired with a single series of collages to form an individual book. 

On their face, the series of collages and the writings—a play, a story, and a series of poetic vignettes—could not be more different, in form, voice, and focus. While they share the Robin Hood tale (invocations of the mythical woods, an address to inequality and injustice, traditional characters in various guises, etc.), their other, quite startling commonalities have more to do with breaking the laws of physics than with a redefinition of robbery. 

The collages and writings—each in quite distinctive ways—bend, expand, fracture, and collapse both time and space. Time might be elastic or prismatic. Space swells while also becoming infinitely smaller. The farthest reaches of the universe might be both telescopic and microscopic; and the universe can be smelled.

A extraordinary range of philosophical questions arise as the writers stare into and study the abyss, confront the apocalyptic, wrestle with despair and death, while the collages rupture the known world, cultivating flux and new meaning from nonsense. Meanwhile, there is abundant song, dance, and “song and dance,” all of it electrified by the artist's and the writers’ sharp and manifold humor. 

Of the Forest is born out of experiment, play, and collaboration. It also inaugurates “Land Line,” a new series of siglio books that intends to close the distances between those who create, make, distribute, and read them. 

Of the Forest, a set of three smyth-sewn paperback books with french flaps, in a numbered edition of 250 / 6 x 7.75 / 104 pages total, full color /  official publication date: November 2 / 75 USD (use code EFLUX for a preorder discount until October 1).

Land Line editions are available only from siglio, online and at book fairs. Early launch of Of the Forest at Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair!

About the artist and authors
Richard Kraft is a multidisciplinary artist and author of Here Comes Kitty: A Comic Opera and the five-volume epic “It Is What It Is”: All the Cards Issued to Donald Trump. He has co-edited books by John Cage, Marcel Broodthaers and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. In 2021 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film/Video.

Mónica de la Torre is a poet, translator, scholar, and the author of seven books of poetry including Pause the Document, Repetition Nineteen, and Public Domain. A recipient of multiple awards including a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and a Creative Capital grant, she teaches poetry and translation at Brooklyn College.

Elizabeth Zuba is the author of three books of poetry, including the award-winning Where Is Everyone!. She has translated multiple artists' books and books of poetry from the Spanish, French, and Portuguese, including several by Marcel Broodthaers. She is also the editor of two acclaimed books of work by Ray Johnson.

Danielle Dutton is a writer, editor, book designer. She has authored five books including the novel Margaret the First, the prose collections Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other, and a nonfiction chapbook on fiction/visual art called A Picture Held Us Captive. The co-publisher of Dorothy, a publishing project, she teaches at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.