James Reid-Cunningham
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Crimson Fears

2 3/4" x 2 3/16" x 3/4"

$1,000-- To Purchase Contact 23 Sandy Gallery

Artist Statement

Crimson Fears is the result of a collaboration with English artist and musician Mike Jennings. Beginning in 1995, Mike and I created a series of collages exploring our responses to horror and science fiction films. The collages went back and forth through the mails many times over four years, with each of us altering the other’s work, adding new sheets, drawing or pasting, combining designs. Towards the end of the project, whenever Mike sent me his latest versions, I simply subtracted one element of the collage, without adding anything; I have no idea if he noticed or not.

This copy has a unique binding in which the sheets were folded to create a miniature format. The folded sheets require that the viewer unfold and re-fold each sheet; this level of attention can be avoided in a conventional book in which one can quickly flip through the text.

The lightness of the exterior of the binding of Crimson Fears does not prepare the viewer for the disquiet within.

Artist Biography

James Reid-Cunningham studied bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, and is the President of the Guild of Book Workers. He is Chief Conservator of the Boston Athenaeum. He has exhibited his books nationally and internationally. He is the proprietor of Wages of Fear, a small press.

All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.