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| all closed up inside the box... |
The book-of-the-week for Week 20 is another book about labyrinths. This week's book, In the Labyrinth, focuses on the convoluted paths life can take... It's constructed as an etui drop wall box with the the stories of four residences attached to the inner walls of the drop-wall box. When the lid is lifted, the 4 separate books that make the chapters can be seen glued to the inner side-walls.
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| looking from above... |
One-by-one, or all at once, the walls fall flat and the chapter covers come into view. Each chapter has a photograph of the front porch of that residence glued to its cover... The front porch is the gate.
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| Chapter 3: An adventure! Holden Street, Pittsburgh |
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| Chapter 1: 2324 Lyon Street & Chapter 4: 7909 Tulip Circle |
When the four walls drop, all four chapter covers are visible...
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| 4 places, 4 stories, 4 walls fallen down... |
Each chapter has the handwritten story on a folded paper structure called a boustrophedon... which means ox turning. .. Dating back to ancient Greece, boustrophedonic writing is lettering which moves across a line in one direction, then at the end of the line, reverses direction and moves in the opposite direction. At the end of each line, the direction of the writing is reversed. All the stories in In the Labyrinth read from left to right... it's the paper that is cut and then folded accordion style as a boustrophedon.
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| the Forum Inscription boustrophedonic writing in Latin, 5th-7th century BC |
The folded-up boustrophedon opens like any other book, but as the pages are turned, there is a flipping that needs to occur so the book can continue being read. Just like life's little twists... and labyrinths...you never really know what's ahead.
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| inside each book... the story |
These are the four chapters and the first few pages of each one...
(Chapter 1) 2324 Lyon Street
Raleigh, NC
It was the home of my birth.
It was the place I entered the world.
Mama, Daddy, my big brothers and I all fit fine in that 900 square feet.
It was all sunshine and roses and backyard Bar-B-Ques.
It was the home of my birth.
It was the place I entered the world.
Mama, Daddy, my big brothers and I all fit fine in that 900 square feet.
It was all sunshine and roses and backyard Bar-B-Ques.
(Chapter 2) 72 Leah Drive
Penland, NC
Imagine, living in Heaven.
On top of the world in a broad green pasture.
With the clouds so close you could touch them, breath them in...
Wrap them around you like a warm blanket.
(Chapter 3) 5808 Holden Street
Pittsburgh, PA
It was a true adventure!
I was just tagging along, just biding my time for two years.
It was a true adventure!
I was just tagging along, just biding my time for two years.
We made our way into this Shangri-La, bursting through the Fort Pitt Tunnel
to the vertex of three rivers and a spaghetti bowl of bridges and by-ways.
to the vertex of three rivers and a spaghetti bowl of bridges and by-ways.
(Chapter 4) 7909 Tulip Circle
Raleigh, NC
It was my dream house.
A place to raise kids and re-live the good parts of the past.
The space inside was deceptive, SHAPE-CHANGING.
It was both warm and cosy, yet massive and rambling.
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| Boustrophedon fold-outs |
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| open to the stories... |
On the back of each boustrophedon is a GOOGLE map to the place that story is about...
When all four boustrophedons are unfolded, the maps are a jumble of folded paper... a maze of maps... a labyrinth of a life.
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| the map folded out... and the story showing through from behind |
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| ...map maze |
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