Week 25: Scavenger Hunt, #1

   A scavenger hunt is a game in which participants are challenged to collect specific items or complete specific actions from a prepared list. A time challenge may be part of the list, or simply meeting each of the criteria (however long it takes).... might also be considered success. Wikipedia relates that game scholar Markus Montola has traced scavenger hunts back to ancient folk games. This week's book, Scavenger Hunt, is an artist's characterization of the scavenger hunt called life. That list of should do's, want to do's, how-to do's, wish-I-could do's,... that bucket list of things; and then all the other things that happen while checking off the items on the list... those things make up the whole list... which is really just another map... of this Scavenger Hunt. 

   The first step of Scavenger Hunt is its definition.... which is expressed in this small 5-inch by 4-inch traditional casebound book with vintage marbled paper cover and silk backcloth spine piece. The title plate was letterpress printed on an ink jet print of an old world map.

the cover.... starting out very traditional...

the spine piece of black Japanese silk backcloth... adds to the traditional look

Inside, the pages of creamy Magnani Velata Italian mould-made paper also have inkjet prints of the antique world map. These pages have been bound using the drum-leaf method, so they are somewhat stiff even though the paper is text weight. 

looking down on the old world maps....

   Before binding, the poem Scavenger Hunt was letterpress printed onto the page spreads using the Pearl press and 18-point Brush type. The ink was mixed to a dark sepia color to allude the historic origins of the hunt. 

title page.....

At one point the poem's letterpress is interrupted with a handwritten line. The insertion of personal mark-making into Scavenger Hunt is one of the aspects of completing the hunt! But until the rules are explicitly communicated....this fact is simply implied. 

The first step of the scavenger hunt is to define it with the poetry. This is the poem....

Picking up 

things  along the way

finding importance

in the pieces

left in place

by someone

or nature

or fate

...or God.

Life is a

scavenger hunt

win or lose

it's no matter,

the days are

the scavenged loot

turned to

the map of our

life.