Funny Ha Ha Funny Peculiar: lines from plays by William Shakespeare

Iowa City, Iowa:: Emily Martin,, 2016.. Edition of 25. 12 x 10 x 1" dos-a-dos structure. Laid in black Japanese linen cloth clamshell box with titles on the spine. Signed and numbered by the artist on the colophon of both books. Funny Peculiar: 19 pages. Letterpress printed on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using handset type and P22 Blox combined with rubbings, ink washes, and collagraphs. Printed on Domestic Etch paper with gray Pescia endsheets. Drum leaf binding. Funny Ha Ha: 28 pages including 9 leaves in slice structure. Printed on an SP15 Vandercook proof press using handset type combined with relief printing using P22 Blox, collagraphs, and polymer plates from Box Car Press. Printed on white Pescia paper with gray Pescia endsheets. Slice book structure. Emily Martin: "'Funny Ha Ha Funny Peculiar or Funny Peculiar Funny Ha Ha' is the result of my extended study of Shakespeare's comedies. I find the comedies individually to be enjoyable but there is a sameness to many of the plots that allows me to mix them up in my head. So much mistaken identity, gender confusion, and various other contrivances while romping their way to a fifth act wedding or two. Even more problematic are the decidedly unfunny themes that are common in many of these same comedies such as hypocrisy, sexual harassment, intolerance, sexism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. "I struggled for a long time to integrate all these ideas. I finally realized that what I needed to do was to address each aspect separately, thus a dos-a-do book. Each side has its own focus and treatment. The characters are the same in both books. They are printed using the P22 Blox which are a set of modular shapes that can be interchanged to change the body's posture and gestures. The P22 Blox allows the presentation of the characters as interchangeable as well. "'Funny Peculiar' is a drum leaf book and presents selected lines from five plays delivered by characters on a stage set. 'Funny Ha Ha' is a slice book allowing the viewer to mix and match the costumes and gender of the characters in a variety of postures."  Lines taken from these Shakespeare plays:: 'Troilus and Cressida'; 'Measure for Measure'; 'Much Ado About Nothing'; 'Merchant of Venice'; 'All's Well That Ends Well'.