B&D Press: ARTIST'S BOOKS

Artist and B&D co-publisher Jenny Lin makes experimental books and zines.

THAT WHICH SEPARATES YOU AND I OR HERE AND THERE

That which separates you and I or here and there is a 12 x 24” screenprinted zine on the contemplation of mortality and loss. It is a single-sheet folded zine / poster, consisting of multi-paneled images on one side of the sheet of paper and a large single image on the other side of the paper. The images consist of various subjects and objects emerging from or disappearing into darkness (images of my partner and I, a variety of hand gestures, and references to interior spaces). My intention is to evoke a melancholy and unsettling atmosphere rather than a narrative. There is a banality in the subjects and objects portrayed, brought together with a melodramatic gloom, a rendering of melancholy so much absorbed in itself that it becomes possibly a bit funny. This project is an intuitive depiction of anticipatory grief (the anticipation of loss and the sensation of grieving before actual loss) that stem specifically from a personal experience but I hope that the work will convey to others a relatable sort of fear of the unknown or the end, a desire to try to pinpoint and make tangible a feeling of dread and uncertainty, and a “celebration” of sadness that aims to reach catharsis. - Jenny Lin

Screenprinted poster / folded zine: printed on both sides. 12 x 24”: two editions of 100 copies each (one on white paper, another on tinted paper). 3 x 4.75” when closed.

THE BATHROOM PROBLEM

“The Bathroom Problem”, 2014. Tunnel book: inkjet print on paper, bookboard. Edition of 30 books.

"The Bathroom Problem" was created for The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History's "Queer Book Dioramas," an exhibition on books that have been meaningful or that have contributed to the formation of the exhibitors' queer identities. Peer through the glasses and share a first-person vantage point in my reading of Jack Halberstam's Female Masculinity. Click to see more images.

ONE EVENING

While a group of young women commiserate and decompress after a midterm art school critique, they share an erotic queer bondage fantasy about their art teacher.

“One Evening”, 2013. Hard-cover, 20-page pamphlet-stitched book. Screenprinted cover and interior. Gloss varnish on the cover. A fictional, illustrated short story. Edition of 30.

SKINNY LEG - THE POP-UP BOOK

Lin's book narrates her experience of being run over by a truck while biking and the subsequent recuperation, blending clinical descriptions with personal accounts. According to Lin, "what is revealed is the strangeness and banality of the experience as well as the mutability of memory."

“Skinny Leg”, 2012. Screenprinted, handmade casebound book with pop-up, fold-out and flap pages. UV screenprint on Fabriano Academia paper. 68 pages, black and white. Page size: 7.5 x 10". Total book size (closed): 8 x 10.25", spine

More about Skinny Leg here.

COVERS

Based on an animation, Covers is a mysterious (and sometimes contoversial) story of desire and domination.

"Covers” book version, 2010. Inkjet prints on rice paper. Cover printed on Fabriano. Handmade perfectbound book. 4 x 2.5 x 0.5”, 76 pages. Images from an animated video by the same title.