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This article was downloaded by: [Flinders University of South Australia]On: 04 October 2014, At: 23:31Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Visual Communication QuarterlyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hvcq20
A Review of “boring boring boring boringboring boring boring”Nigel Holmes aa Westport, CTPublished online: 22 Mar 2011.
To cite this article: Nigel Holmes (2011) A Review of “boring boring boring boring boring boringboring”, Visual Communication Quarterly, 18:1, 62-63, DOI: 10.1080/15551393.2010.515460
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15551393.2010.515460
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Visual Communication Quarterly 62 Volume 18 January—March 2011
Review by Nigel Holmes
To quote from the publisher’s announcement at the back
of this book, boring boring boring boring boring boring
boring (which, from now on, I’m calling boring+)
“…is a multi-platform, multi-modal,
cross-bred work of art. That’s art school
talk for ‘available in different formats.’
We guarantee that if you are bored by
one version of the book, you’ll be equally
bored by any of the following:”
The perfect-bound version; the E-book; the audio ver-
sion; the website; the poster version.
In other words, boring+ is determined to be seen,
somehow. And that’s a good idea these days with
traditional book publishing up sh*t’s creek (to use one
of the many four-letter words liberally sprinkled here,
all without asterisks, of course).
Some of the formats offered are free, so you can see
for yourself before buying the perfect-bound version.
And you might want to have a look, because a book
that tries so hard on every page to grab your attention
is, after a while, really hard to read.
The nonlinear story concerns 19-year-old art students
(and other characters) and their exploits with drugs
and sex, all told in language that probably reflects the
way the characters speak, but which becomes, like,
taxing, after a bit, you know? Whatever.
Throughout the book, the main characters’ names
appear in their own individual font. If this were the only
typographic tic, it would be fun. Among the art students,
Adelaide gets a nice soft italic serif with a long swash on
the first A, and PuNK mixes cases and has each letter in
a different chunky font, but none of these little touches
are larger than the regular text face. That’s a nice,
elegant touch, adding just a little color to the text.
But the designer-writer Zach Plague (“A made-up name”)
can’t resist messing about with the layout of most of his
pages, making the book into a sort of homage to Elliott
Earls, or David Carson, although without Carson’s
one-time total disregard for readability. You can read
boring� if you are patient, but it’s hard work. Looking at
the “poster” versions of the book you can see how the
connections between the apparently random typographic
twirls and flourishes on the pages of the bound book
come together to form larger images when you see the
printed 32-page signatures (the “posters”) before they are
folded down to the book’s trim size.
But let’s be constructive. There’s a lot of work in this
book, and I respect that. I actually want to like boring�.
I went to art school. It was a long time ago, but I certainly
recognize the brutal critiques, where I and my tired fellow
students struggled to explain our work in front of the
assembled group, work that was often produced just hours
before the deadline. There was plenty of bull… (add that
“s” word again, if you want) flying around the room. We
were trying to impress our teachers and each other.
Near the end of the book there’s a part designed as a
book-within-a book. On the pages of the paperback you
see photographic reproductions of a smaller hardback
book with the edges of the cover and the thickness of
the book showing. The “inside” book is designed in a
very quiet, gimmick-free, classical manner to bolster the
illusion of the effect. The contrast between this and the
rest of boring� is vivid. It made me want to go back to
have another go at reading the rest of the book again.
Trying to ignore the distractions of the overdesigned
text, I found the writing flowed easily when it was
allowed to. Boring� is well written, but the meaning is
ZZaacchh PPllaagguueeboring boring boring
boring boring boring boring
273 Pages.Chicago, Illinois: Featherproof Books • 2008
$40
The book review editor is Dr. Lawrence Mullen • E-mail: [email protected]
Book Reviews
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Pages 62–63 63 Visual Communication Quarterly
often hidden by postmodern effects. Is this what
happens when a writer designs his or her own book?
Or a designer writes one? The result here is a kind of
art first, and a novel as a secondary idea.
Featherproof Books, a small indie press in Chicago
founded by Zach Dodson (that’s Plague) in 2005, has a
lively website (www.featherproofbooks.com), and many
of the books offered there are worth a look. Some
small, short ones are downloadable and free. They
come with simple folding and stapling instructions. This
is an interesting way to do excerpts from forthcoming
titles, and it’s terrific to see a small press keeping up
with the idea that books are worth producing, pushing
them into new directions and different formats.
Featherproof clearly has a sense of humor: included
on their website is a review of boring� from Print
magazine. It says: “The effect is that of artist’s journal
meets ransom note: the text held hostage by the
design.”
Text held hostage by design, I like that. And it’s ballsy of
Zach Plague (Dodson) to have used it as a blurb for his
book.
But I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, and I
look forward to many more experiments from him.
Nigel Holmes lives in Westport, CT and is a memberof this journal’s editorial board. Correspondenceshould be sent to: [email protected]
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