Title: Roam

Photographer/s: Beth Dow

Contributor/s: Photographed, illustrated, designed, and contracted by the artist.

Date of publication: 2011

Place of publication: Minneapolis, MN

Dimensions: 8.0″ x 6.5″ x 0.75″

Type of binding: Accordion book with bookcloth-wrapped board covers

Number of pages: 24

Type of paper: Somerset Book

Type of printing: Inkjet

Publisher: Beth Dow

Category: Artist Book

Summary: “Roam” is a tongue-in-cheek, conceptual look at real and imagined classical references in our local Minneapolis landscape. It confuses contemporary Minneapolis with ancient Roam, as crumbling ruins are digitally combined with ordinary Minneapolis structures that resemble classical forms, like bridge supports that suggest ancient columns. By whitening skies and establishing new horizons, the images approximate retouched collodion photographs of Victorian expedition photographer Francis Frith, who inspired this project. Arbitrary horizons sliced through people and cars retain hints of their presence like the strata of time, allowing remaining elements to work as emblems of universal experience. Forms fuse both logically and absurdly, as they do in life.

This single composite landscape, monuments on seven hills wobbling through time and space, appears plausible at first glance. Only closer inspection reveals the incongruous nature of its trickery. Geography, time, and perspective are jumbled, yet the chaos is tidy. The book includes illustrations I drew of Janus, who looks toward the past and the future, and the wolf mother of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. The endpapers are blocks of “lorem ipsum” pseudo-Latin placeholder text used in graphic design. “Roam” will eventually be combined with a sister volume, “Polis”, that will merge images of classical Greece with faux-classical architectural details on Minneapolis buildings. The combined volumes will be titled “Here, Nor There”. This project has been generously supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board and the McKnight Foundation.

Date and place of birth of photographer/s: 1965 Minneapolis, MN

Website: http://www.bethdow.com

Donated by: Beth Dow