the book choices - graph paper pattern book

Background to my book. This is a book I found recently (but still before the project idea had surfaced) at Reverse Garbage. I have played with graph paper previously and have always been fascinated by the grid and structure. I liked this book even more because someone has plotted and planned their cross stitch patterns in it. I chose the book for this project because my initial vision was to send a novel, then i wanted to send an old photograph album (but was too heavy), so I thought this was the best choice as it is light weight, visual and still very interesting. The more I looked at it the more I realised that it was the right choice, as it has so much in it.

A little background on my interest in graph paper. I became conscious of it when looking at the video artwork by Mona Hatoum called "Measures of Distance". It is a video of her mother showering, Mona's voice over reading letters (in English) her mother had written her and the actual image of the letters her mother had written (in Arabic) layered over the shower image.

The paper used for the letter is a type of ruled paper, similar to graph paper. It is very common letter writing paper in Lebanon, it actually comes from school books that are made in France. From my understanding/assumption, the paper is to assist with writing the letters properly. I had a friend get me a couple of pads of writing paper a few years ago and now i actually use them to write in Arabic (something I didn't expect I would ever be able to do).

Without going on & on... this is what influenced my attraction to graph paper initially.

I think finding a rule is a very difficult thing to do! I do not want to be prescriptive about it. I guess I would like to see a sensitivity to the grid. I would also like to see as much of the patterns/drawings already in the book remain at the core, so they are not erased so much.

(Nicole)