Living on the Last Page
Glitch Design Studio approached me in late 2024 to be a part of an exhibition celebrating the opening of an art and design-focused library space they made in their building. The space was also used as a venue for weekly art talks, as they positioned themselves to be a small cultural hub with the opportunities they provided for the exchange of ideas and information.
Given that this exhibition was made to inaugurate a library, the theme of the posters was “the artist’s relationship with books”. So, to respond to that, I focused on the sadness that comes from finishing a book, and how it stays with you forever. The primary image within the poster is a person standing proudly, having conquered the last page of a hill-like tome. Looking out at a final page that stretches far into the landscape, seemingly without an end. But the multi-compositional nature of my work allows for multiple concepts and images to coexist, and as such, throughout the poster, I included several book-related visual concepts.
Some of these concepts are more direct than others, such as the bee I labeled as “noi” or “us” making its way to pollinate a book-shaped flower. The spread of information happens only when we interact with it, so I likened our reading and then passing on information to the activities of the noble insect that sustains our ecosystems. But other concepts consist of visual coincidences regarding books that denote my thoughts on literature as a whole. Such as the decorations on the bookshelf on the right-hand side of the composition being related to the Goode homolosine projection map (a niche, equally portioned map of the globe) – suggesting that the world and our culture reside in a bookshelf. Or just below that, where one can see 3 types of bookmarks- a Japanese style bookmark with string, a cartoonish bookmark with a fringe, and a simple bent corner. These suggest the different ways in which people interact with the idea of reading, like the ways that different cultures or readers of varying ages would choose to add decoration to their reading experience (and those who don’t). These are just a few of the messages I alluded to in the poster, and I leave the discovery of the rest to the viewer.
Throughout the work, I incorporated books wherever possible, like the yellow speech bubble in the shape of an open book. The poster is also designed as an interactive treasure hunt, with a small prompt asking the viewer to note how many books they can find throughout the composition (the number is quite high).
Speaking of that titular speech bubble in which the character says “when a good book ends” – on the pages of a book directly below it, he receives the reply “it begets another.” This is because sometimes in my youth, as an avid reader, I would start a new book directly after finishing one. I would do this in a never-ending search for a new story or more knowledge, and also to somewhat forget the pain of parting with the book prior.
