Original 6 Montages:
Cover + Spreads:
Assembled Book:
For this assignment, I created an unfolding book of montages and poetry based on a progression over time. My book focused on the progression of a romantic relationship, from the initial meeting of two strangers to the ambiguous ending and rebuilding. Most of my background images come from a Strand $2 book of the installation art of Gene Moore, a window dresser at Tiffany and Co. I utilized magazine cutouts of human bodies, especially hands, and hand embroidery as a motif to connect elements of the montages and maintain cohesion throughout the book. I stuck to a mostly monochrome color scheme, centered around varying shades of red, to convey the intensity and intimacy of a relationship.
In my montages, I focused visually on the connection and dynamic between the people involved in the relationship. My first montage, representing an initial meeting and attraction, features two people who are separate, but drawn together. The second and third montage reflect the entrenching of the two people with each other, as they pour energy into their relationship (#2) and become tied up in one another (#3). My fourth collage illustrates an initial tension, represented by thread, between two people who are still devoted to each other, and the fifth collage represents a lonely, literal unraveling of the relationship, once it has progressed to a comfortable and domestic level. My sixth and final collage, representing a person rewinding or recreating with the “thread” of the relationship, is purposely ambiguous and could represent the reconstruction of the relationship, or the personal rebuilding that occurs after a relationship ends.
The text in my montage book comes from a series of cut-up poems that I made from an article on the subject of love, and how it is not enough to guarantee a successful romantic relationship. My poetry focuses on the decline of a relationship between two people who put too much stock in the power of love and struggle with other elements of their unhealthy relationship. This poetry gives the montage book a strictly romantic and cynical spin. It is organized into boxlike layouts on spreads opposite my collages. The first line of each poem is done in the Bodoni typeface and is larger, creating a second fragmented “poem” that can be read across the book, and the rest of the poems are smaller and set in Futura. I felt that these type choices were simple and clean, lending some modernity to the spreads without being too dramatic or distracting.
My finished book was printed on pro color paper, assembled with spray adhesive, and mounted onto Bristol board for reinforcement. It folds flat into itself, with a cover on top and the final montage serving as the back cover. Dimensions are approximately 4×4 inches.
