- Venue
- Laura Bartlett Gallery
- Location
- United Kingdom
Becky Beasley's artist's book American Letter is a beautiful physical object. Printed on heavily weighted paper, the understated prairie green binding, font choice and inventive layout has been meticulously researched and is a pleasure to look at.
Within the covers, nestled between essays and interviews, are large matt photographs of Beasley's work. Whilst larger pieces are shown as installation shots, smaller works, such as Sleep, Night (I) and Ream Green (G.C.L.A) are reprinted to scale as though they were tangible objects popping out of the page. This gives the reader, who has not seen Beasley's practice, a tantalising glimpse of the tactile sculptural forms she produces. Unfortunately however the effect is sometimes lost when reprinted over two pages rupturing the photograph with a large crease.
Also included in the publication are Beasley's essays on the American Letter paper format and on a short story by Herman Melville. Both are insightful and intriguing allowing the reader glimpse the artist's thoughts. However the written portion of the book is let down by the seemingly endless, unedited interview between Beasley and John Slyce; although a conceptually interesting exercise in practical terms this is unreadable both in length and because of the unbroken layout of the pages.
Overall American Letter is a carefully choreographed chronological journey through the artist's thoughts and conversations that is not easily resolved by the final page, one which will interest newcomers and existing fans of her practice.
