The Exposure of Self: Reading Wonderland Artist Books
Gemma Meek
The ‘artist book’ is a playful manipulation of the recognisable book form; paper may be transformed into an obscure material, the sequence of pages or the book structure altered, or there could be unsuspecting content within the covers. Often, like your favourite novel, an artist book can be read in the comfort of your bed, flicked through on the bus, or studied at a library desk. The reader’s interaction of turning the pages and feeling the material qualities, alongside deciphering its visual and textual content, all provide insights to its meaning and invite a highly intimate relationship. So when given the artist books from the project Wonderland: The Art of Becoming Human, filled with private, raw and autobiographical content, I was struck by the comfort and discomfort this exposure brought to the reading.
These artist books contain photographic narratives of nude self-portraits, scenes of emotional or physical distress, intimate moments with family and friends, and the seemingly ‘everyday’ details of walks, landscapes and objects.1 Was I, the reader, being invited to get to know these portrayed individuals? Why were these individuals revealing what seemed intimate, enjoyable and painful images to strangers?
Each artist book is the work of a participant living in the northwest of the UK, who is in longer-term recovery, whether from substance use disorder, or as someone affected by substance use disorder. Collaborating with Dr Amanda Ravetz (Manchester School of Art), Mark Prest (Portraits of Recovery) and artist Cristina Nuñez, participants were engaged in Nuñez’s ‘self-portrait approach’, which encourages the expression of emotion and affirmation of existence in front of the camera. The project involved participants taking photographs in a studio, as well as at home with a camera phone, and is documented in the film Wonderland, which includes participants’ reflections and group discussions.2
Nuñez’s article on the therapeutic benefits of self-portraiture asserts a case for self-knowledge, which individuals gain by performing and developing their image in front of the camera, in anticipation for a more understood future self.3 For Nuñez, self-portraiture as art, forms a ‘sense of shared humanity’ with the viewer, as it highlights a human, creative need for projection of the self, a desire to affirm our existence as individuals.4 I am therefore left asking: If it is important to share self-portraits for affirmation of existence and to perform self-portraits for emancipatory ‘self-knowledge’, why do I, the reader, feel discomforted by the Wonderland artist book imagery? To consider this question, I want to interpret the books from the position of ‘reader’ and viewer of the Wonderland film, analysing the potential desires participants may have in exposing these visual narratives through the book form.5
Wonderland comes at a time of increased interest in photography as a social practice or ‘socially engaged photography’. Projects that fall under this term often involve ‘non-artists’’ participation in photographic production, and challenge notions of representation, social justice and power dynamics.6 Many projects use self-portraiture to challenge stereotypical representations through communicating personal experiences. This is visible in artist Anthony Luvera assisting UK homeless participants in taking photographic self-portraits (2006 ongoing)7. In Being Old (2015), artist Amanda Evans collaborates on a book of text and photographs with a group of older people from Portland, US to explore experiences of growing old. There have also been projects at Newcastle University’s Open Lab (2013), which explore digital media with women experiencing domestic violence.8 Like Wonderland, these projects have an emancipatory value in participants learning about themselves through the ways in which they negotiate self-representation, as well as stimulating social relations through group discussions.
The use of photography as a catalyst to discuss representations of ‘recoverism’9 against personal experiences of recovery is an element visible in the Wonderland film. Within the film, many of the participants talk about ‘recovery’ as a process of ‘becoming’. To recover is a positive choice to evolve as a person and have a ‘second life’.10 With this utopian aim in mind, the artist books can be read as a photographic narrative of the participants’ reflections on the process of ‘becoming’. Often a highly individual journey, the variation of narratives and self-representation within the books challenges the idea of a singular road to recovery, or a universal figure of the ‘recoverist’.
These visual narratives are not solely comprised of self-portraits, but are woven alongside images of landscapes, interactions with other Wonderland participants, objects and family-album style snapshots. This supports Cynthia Freeland’s suggestion that every day we are performing the ‘self’ in a relational and transformative approach; we are concerned with how we are seen and therefore modify and respond to scenarios in relation to other people, objects and spaces.11 This concern with ‘how we are seen’ does not result in the making of self-portrait artist books as narcissistic. Rather, as visible in the film, seeing one’s image can evoke different feelings, from shame to control. Inviting others to comment on these self-portraits allows participants to hear how others see them, resulting in reflection and modification of those feelings. Therefore, placing these images in the book form, sharing the self, in moments of vulnerability and strength, symbolises participants’ self-acceptance.12
The process of producing, creating and editing photographs within the book form also provides the participant with creative control over how these images are shared. Johanna Drucker once stated that the artist book is the ideal medium for women artists, as they could control the production of their self-image in private, whilst negotiating the public exposure of self through distributing the pieces on their own terms.13 Although problematically gendered for participants of Wonderland, by making these photographs ‘public’ within the artists’ books, what they may have previously kept private, entails a liberating exposure through self-acceptance, and a giving over to further interpretations from new readers.
So why did these books initially provoke discomfort? In an attempt to answer, I want to end with a conundrum posed by one of the participants in the Wonderland film. The participant questions how you can stay healthy while really feeling what others feel, challenging the practice of ‘numbing’ feelings, whether medically or mentally, in order to cope with difficult feelings, but also highlighting the difficult process of staying well while facing painful feelings. The Wonderland artist books through this perspective demand the reader to question what it means to feel, in all its pain and hardship, through images of bruised bodies, hospital beds, moments with loved ones, barren landscapes and potentially painful memories. As a reader, I feel provoked to consider what it might be like to turn the lens on myself, on my own image and to question how I might be seen by others. Perhaps my initial reaction of discomfort is because of my own fear at the thought of barring my own skin, memories and experiences, to share what I consider my humanity. In this interpretation, the artist books not only show a brave and raw portrayal of the authors’ recovery journeys, but also confront the reader with what it might mean to feel as a human.
Gemma Meek is an Arts and Humanities Research Council NWCDTP funded PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research project aims to conceive of a definition and critical framework in which to read socially engaged book art (2000 onwards) through the selection of case studies and mapping of practices and book forms.
1 The artist books can be found in the Exhibition area on this site, or accessed on the Wonderland wordpress website in PDF format. Wonderland: The Art of Becoming Human. Exploring Recovery Through Portraiture. (2016) Artist Books. [Online] [Accessed 1 September 2016] https://wonderandrecovery.wordpress.com/artist-books/
2 Wonderland 17 minute version (2016) Directed by Amanda Ravetz. [Online] Available through Vimeo. [Accessed 4 September 2016]
3 Nuñez, Cristina. (2009) ‘The Self-Portrait, a Powerful Tool for Self-Therapy.’ European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling. 11(1) pp.51-61
4 Ibid. p53
5 Wonderland 17 Minute Version. Op. Cit.
6 This recent archive website documents projects that fall within the rubric of photography as a social practice. Although not providing a fixed definition, the interviews they conduct and the editor’s practices all negotiate ideas of ‘ethics, representation, power dynamics and social justice’ within photography. Photography as a Social Practice (2016) About. [online] [Accessed on 10 September 2016] http://www.asocialpractice.com/about/
7 Luvera, Anthony. Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits. [online] [Accessed on 12 September 2016] http://www.luvera.com/old/
8 Clarke, Rachel, Peter Wright, Madeline Balaam and John McCarthy (2013) ‘Digital-Portraits: Photo-sharing After Domestic Violence’. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, pp.2517-2526
9 “a new, North West social movement, under the proactive slogan of Recoverism, allied to the arts, harnessing social change and emancipation by re-framing cultural identities around substance use disorder”. From the text on the front page of this site.
10 Op.Cit.
11 Freeland, Cynthia (2010) Portraits and Persons A Philosophical Enquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.100-104
12 This understanding of publicly sharing self-portraits as a mode of self-acceptance stems from discussions with Amanda Ravetz. In the Wonderland film, participants also speak about the importance of informing a public on ‘recovery’.
13 Drucker, Johanna (2007) ‘Intimate Authority.’ In The Book as Art Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp.14-17
Works Cited
Clarke, Rachel, Peter Wright, Madeline Balaam and John McCarthy. (2013) ‘Digital-Portraits: Photo-sharing After Domestic Violence.’ In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, pp.2517-2526
Drucker, Johanna (2007) ‘Intimate Authority.’ In The Book as Art Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp.14-17
Freeland, Cynthia (2010) Portraits and Persons A Philosophical Enquiry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Luvera, Anthony. Photographs and Assisted Self-Portraits. [online] [Accessed on 12 September 2016] http://www.luvera.com/old/
Nuñez, Cristina. (2009) ‘The Self-Portrait, a Powerful Tool for Self-Therapy.’ European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling. 11(1) pp.51-61
Photography as a Social Practice (2016) About. [online] [Accessed on 10 September 2016] http://www.asocialpractice.com/about/
Wonderland: The Art of Becoming Human. Exploring Recovery through Portraiture. (2016) Artist Books. [Online] [Accessed 1 September 2016] https://wonderandrecovery.wordpress.com/artist-books/
Wonderland 17 minute version. (2016) Directed by Amanda Ravetz. [Online] Available through Vimeo. [Accessed 4 September 2016]