Book 23    Right Now It’s Only Three Penn, C.  (2009) (Fig.21).  Right Now It’s Only Three.  Unique altered artist’s book. 30 Double Sided Pages. Alteration of The Ear, The Eye and the Arm.  Handmade paper, Tracing Paper, Photos, Sewing, Aluminum gauze, copper thread, Wax, Digital Printing 25cm x 17cm x 16cm.  Book 23. Collection: Cheryl Penn.

This book was the appropriation of a novel titled The Ear the Eye and the Nose. The novel was set in the future in the Durban/Pinetown  area.  As I grew up in this area,  the geographical district the book covered was that of my home, religion, family and friends.  It was an appropriate place in which to set a context for my own personal story.   In the original novel, the three characters, the Ear, the Eye and the Nose are three clairvoyant-type, cloaked persons who advise the governor on family matters,  keep an eye on the children, and maintain contact with the ancestors.

Some contemporary  artists are putting “a microscope on the intimacies of every day life” (Heartney, 2008:122).  This entails  reviving family memories, tabulating ancestry and generally trying to narrate their own personal, historical context.  I created a memory book just from the woman ancestry in my line that I have had contact with.  That amounts to four generations, but now there is only my Mother, my daughter and myself.  This is our book.

I overlaid images and text  to indicate the layering of memory, and that what we remember of incidents is now sometimes vague and indistinct.  I experienced two personal crises  during this time; one being the diagnosis of a terminal illness for my mother.  Perhaps soon in the future, but I hope not, there will be a book called Right Now its only Two.