Place

Rejected from Mars

Ric Haynes. Rejected from Mars. New York, NY: Granary Books, 1995.

Tracy Doreen [Dietzel]. Doreen getaway guide to Paris. Madison, WI: ReaLibrary, c2000.

Lois Morrison. The Mexican dog-tosser. [Leonia, NJ]: L. Morrison, c1995.

Jim Lee. Place of the long river: a Connecticut River anthology of poetry and prose with views from the source to the sound. Glastonbury, CT: Blue Moon Press, 1995.

Books on travel and transport, at home and abroad, are a common subject of artists’ books. In Tracy Doreen’s work, Doreen getaway guide to Paris, the artist has used an actual travel guidebook and altered it to include the dreams of an American in Paris. Ric Haynes’ Rejected from Mars is a work of imaginary travel. It’s a fantastic investigation of outer space.

Mexican dog-tosser by Lois Morrison is a tale about the Mexican-U.S. border, and is itself on the edge of territories. Told like a fable and rendered in candy colors, at first glance this book seems safe, but a second reading reveals a darker atmosphere.

Place of the long river is a collaboration with writers organized by the publisher Jim Lee whose woodcuts of Connecticut rivers are a tour de force of printing. Lee’s work is supremely crafted; the composition of the page and ordering of text and image are powerful and fluid.