STRUCTURE-BOOK
/4
- STRUCTURE-BOOK
- 2011
- artist book, box with 100 prints
- 5,5 x 21 x 15 cm
Sanja Iveković’s "Structure – Book" is an artist’s book that relates to her work "Struktura" (Structure) of 1975/76. "Struktura" comprised ten newspaper clippings of images of women and ten different captions that the artist had written by hand beneath each photograph. The final photo collage multiplied them by ten to show 100 images, with each of the ten images being paired with each of the ten captions. In the original collage, the images were arranged in diagonal order, reminiscent of a constructivist painting and its geometric gestalt. The artist’s book, on the other hand, contains 100 cards with all of the photos and their captions printed separately. Figures including Princess Anne of England, Patty Hearst, and Ellen Stewart are paired with captions such as “A LIFE FULL OF SUFFERING,” “LEARNED HOW TO BE PHOTOGENIC,” “NO ONE HAS SUED HER YET,” and the like. In this way, Iveković analyzes the functioning of mass media and the power of language over any given image. Revealing the absurdity and merely putative credibility of such quickly transmitted photo-text messages, the artist anticipated the multifarious possibilities of image politics long before the onslaught of virtual realities. W.S.