This drawing ‘You Are Here’ (acrylic on paper, 60″x62″), functions as a map and book and is mapping love through language and mark making, exploring how language, signs and the pictorial can or cannot capture the meaning and personal notions of love. This work is part of an ongoing text based series titled: ‘Language of Love’.

The work was shown at Printed Matter and is part of Chido Johnson’s Love Library:

http://letstalkaboutlovebaby.com/artists/kirstenleenaars.html

Can an object of affection take the form of a book? Join Printed Matter this Valentines Day as we leaf through the Love Library, a collection of 200+ books in the traveling exhibition Let’s Talk About Love Baby. These artist made books are an intimate re-imagining of the traditional romance novel, encompassing molded and carved novels, as well as, in one case, a bookwork sprouting with vegetation.

The traveling project/installation Let’s Talk About Love Baby was initiated in Detroit as Johnson’s call for society to experience love, life and humanity as we were once so readily able to do before the digital age- that is, through the pages of a romance novel. Since its beginning days in Detroit, Let’s Talk About Love Baby has been shown in Addis Ababa, Chicago, St. Louis, Lawrence, and Harare, and at Printed Matter in New York.

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Details Drawing