Title | In Memoriam |
Artist / Creator | Garrett Highly |
Artist's Nationality | United States |
Place of Publication | Greenville, NC |
Publication Date | 2020 |
Author of Text | Garrett Highley |
Process / Technique | Laser Printing |
Number of Images | 22 |
Structure / Binding | Modified Secret Belgian Binding |
Medium / Materials | Transparency sheets, book board, linen paper, linen thread, PVA glue |
Paper Stock | Transparency sheets |
Number of Pages | 22 |
Dimensions (WxHxD) | 5.875 x 9 x 1.1875 inches |
Edition Size | Unique Artist Book |
Signed & Numbered | Unsigned |
I'm interested in the limits of traditional prose as a storytelling medium, and the way our expectations, as members of a hyperliterate culture, are shaped by those limits. One of our expectations is the existence of one definitive text—one truth. I began this project thinking I would reveal that "truth" through the "lies" of these bereaved strangers. I suppose I did. The words are sometimes difficult to see, the sentences challenging to parse—it's often hard to read, in every sense, but it's there. Still, as I finished this first version, I realized "In Memoriam" was a piece of nonfiction not in spite of the obituary it deconstructs, but in combination with it. What my family knew about that man needed to be said, but the words of the people who loved him couldn't be ignored. The whole truth doesn't reside in one text or the other; it lives only in the tension between them.
Artist Bio
Garrett Highley is a writer and book artist based in Greenville, North Carolina, where he is working towards a Master's of Arts in English at East Carolina University. He writes mostly experimental fiction and nonfiction; when it gets experimental enough, he makes art books. He is currently toiling over a thesis collection with the help of his wife and their two cats.