Saturday, July 29, 2023

Sharon Pettus, Gentleman, Choose Your Weapons, Autodidact artpress, St. Louis/Tuscon, 1995, ed. 150

                                                                                       photo credit: Printed Matter

cover without ribbons & miniature gun

I'm going to let Pettus' artist statement that accompanies this accordion serve as the introduction to this rather unique hand-stamped & collage work, with the issues & concerns she addresses even more prescient here in the United States, where the mass slaughter of innocent citizens continues unabated.

"A hand-stamped accordion fold book on the subject of gun control, specifically hand-guns and assault weapons. The book is held closed with red and black satin ribbons on which a miniature mixed-metal revolver is tied. The cross on panel fourteen consists of live uncanceled thirty-two cent American postage stamps, each placed upside down denoting the international symbol of distress."

As an addenda to the above here is a link to the USA's: Mass Shootings in 2023 | Gun Violence Archive. It makes horrific reading and it's going on right now. I myself am one of the unwitting members of a community of people all across this country, whose lives have been touched by mass shootings. Mine was quite early in the 'pandemic,' on the campus of the University of Iowa, Iowa City in 1991. [University of Iowa shooting - Wikipedia]

16 single-sided pages, individually 3.5" x 2.75 and when unfolded 3ft 10inches.






back cover

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