The Beauties of DECOMPOSITION

The Beauties of DECOMPOSITION
paula roush & Michael Hampton

Foil-stamped grey board box contains:
Unique handmade paper specimen
Three laser printed books (varied sizes), with loose colour photograph on gloss paper.
Special edition of 12 copies accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the authors.
msdm publications 2017

Concept-specific paper is a refined substrate in the world of artists’ books. The logic of the work is materially inscribed in the fibres of handmade paper. In the case of The Beauties of DECOMPOSITION, the paper’s meaning is derived from ‘The Book Dispersed’ exhibition project curated by the collective Media Instaveis/ Unstable Media.
Each bookwork contains a paper specimen composed of pulp from the abortive funding application for ‘The Book Dispersed,’ blended with pulp from Michael Hampton’s magnum opus "Unshelfmarked: Reconceiving the artist’s book" (author’s copy), together with extra pulp from Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help (a print on demand copy purchased on eBay).
The book, dedicated to the late Auto-Destructive artist and activist Gustav Metzger, is a work about dispersion exploring in the book medium the tension between collecting/organising and scattering.

Book 1 is composed of an essay, cartoon and documentary photographs of the working process, placing it in a continuum along with other self-published books such as Smiles’s. ["Decomposition," 40 pages, 21x15cm, stapled, colour, evercolor cream paper 80gsm, varied inserts]

Book 2 aggregates the scanned records of the handmade paper specimens, verso and recto, viewing them as a series. Since they will be dispersed, each original specimen is included in one book of the edition of 12. ["Scanned record of paper specimens: #1-12," 24 pages, 27×19.5cm, stapled b&w , corona offset paper 120gsm]

Book 3 contains the scanned letters that Gustav Metzger sent to Michael Hampton by Royal Mail Post (always first class), mostly trying to arrange meet ups at specific galleries to see exhibitions, and participate in symposia and other art events.[“Thanks for the information and good news,” 25 pages, 18.5x17cm, scanned b&w letters bound by a brass cylinder post, canon paper 80gsm]