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International Day

International Day by Cally Trench and Philip Lee

At Cally's English primary school, in the early 1960s, there was an annual 'International Day', when children dressed up in a mish-mash of national costumes. Cally Trench and Philip Lee have re-created 'International Day', and readers are invited to identify the eight European countries they depict, so becoming complicit in the stereotypes.

International Day (2017) is part of AMBruno's [sic] collection of artists' books, which were shown at PAGES Leeds / International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair at the Tetley in March 2017, at BABE at the Arnolfini, Bristol in April 2017, at Miss Read, Berlin in July 2017, and at The New York Art Book Fair in September 2017. The entire [sic] collection, including International Day, was bought by the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, and by the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. A copy of International Day is also in the British Library, and in the Ravensbourne collection of artists' books. 

AMBruno presented fifteen books with singularly diverse responses to the theme of [sic]. The [sic] collection of books was launched at PAGES Leeds / International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair, at The Tetley (4 to 5 March 2017). www.leedsartbookfair.com

The brief was to make a book in which the content (whether text/image/other) and/or the formal and physical elements (such as page layout and sequence, binding and materials) are in some way at odds with assumptions of what a book should be or do. sic is short for sic erat scriptum (thus, or, thus was it written). It is inserted after a quoted word or passage to indicate that this has been transcribed exactly as found in the source text. The notation's usual purpose is to inform the reader that any errors or apparent errors (for instance misprints, surprising assertions, faulty reasoning or spelling) are intentionally reproduced.

Books by artists often confound expectations; here the challenge might be to make something that initially seems to be/have mistakes and then to reveal an underlying logic - or not, and so remain in themselves non-sequiturs.

The books in the [sic] collection were selected by Sarah Bodman.

AMBruno's [sic] collection was also shown was at:

Bristol Artists Book Event (BABE) at the Arnolfini, Bristol (1 to 2 April 2017). BABE

MISS READ: Berlin Art Book Festival (14 to 16 July 2017) at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. MISS READ 

The complete [sic] collection was bought for the Kunstbibliothek Berlin (Berlin Art Library) Kunstbibliothek Berlin

The New York Art Book Fair (22 to 24 September 2017) The New York Art Book Fair

Small Publishers' Fair (10 and 11 November 2017) at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. Small Publishers Fair

The entire collection was bought by the British Library.

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