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Artists' Books

A guide to accessing the artists' books collection at the ECU Library. Includes a blog about books in the collection and thematic reading lists

Collection Highlight | Now is the Past by Hai Hsin Huang

by Anonymous on 2021-04-09T15:38:00-07:00 | 0 Comments

In the last blog post, we were reflecting on BIG books. Today, we’re thinking about this super small (5cm tall!) book: Now is the Past, by Hai Hsin Huang.

Aphoto of the book Now is the Past on a white background. This image shows the front (wider) side of the cardboard sleeve, with the title of the book printed in small, black, capital letters. An photo of Now is the Past by Hai Hsin Huang. This images shows the spine of the book, made of a blue fabric material with pressed golden letters. The design shows Chinese characters on the top and bottom, and in the middle, English characters read the title and author. The book is encased in a small, grey, cardboard sleeve.   The front cover of Now is the past, being held between two fingers, in front of a white background. The front cover is a blue textile material with golden embossed images. The top and bottom of the cover show a wide, thin sliver of a circle, somewhat resembling an image of a sun setting, if the horizon lines were the top and bottom edges of the covers. At the centre, there is a drawing of a large face with short hair and a beard. The face and hair style of the are reminiscent of Ancient Greek sculptures. A photo of one the first interior pages of the book, gripped tightly between two fingers on a white background. The book is visibly very small, and the outside edges of the pages are a bright pink colour, with the inside of the pages being a the colour of newsprint. The page the book is opened to reads, "Find the same two persons in this book." Below, it shows two mirrored images of a face, with text below reading: "no.____/ no.____" with the blank spaces provided to fill in the page numbers in which the faces are found in the book An interior image Now is the Past. The page title is 87, printed in a tiny blue font at the top centre of the page, and below there is a blue line drawing of a person in a hijab. The person is wearing a hijab, which is coloured in and is looking over their shoulder, which has a purse strap over it.  An image from around the middle of the book, showing page 215, parting the two sections of salmon-y pink page exteriors. The page contains a line drawing of a person with long, dark hair, wearing a watch and a shoulder bag. The person is holding their cell phone with both hands, holding it in front of their face and covering all their facial features. A photo of an interior page of Now is the Past. The book is so thick relative to its height, that most of the image is filled by the pink edges of hundreds of pages. The book is opened by two fingers to page 399. The page shows a blue line drawing of a person with a round face, and short curly hair. They are wearing dark lipstick, and small, oblong glasses. They also have a knit crewneck sweater with a strap (resembling a lanyard or a camera strap) around their neck. the back cover of Now is the Past. Similarly to the front cover, it is blue with gold embossing. The top edge shows a fraction of the bottom of a circle, and the bottom edge shows the same, wide, thin partial circle, mirrored. In the centre, there are three headless, nude figures standing in contraposto, resembling Greek sculptures. In tiny text, below the image of the figures, "nos:books" is written in lowercase letters.  another image of the Now is the Past by Hai Hsin Huang on a white background. On the bottom, small black letters read the name of the publisher and the publication year "nos:books, 2016"

This miniature, hand-pressed book documented visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and was printed on a traditional letterpress. Through its thoughtful design and observant approach, this tiny artist’s book places details that are normally minor or subtle, at its front and centre. 

 

You can find Huang on Instagram at @hhhstudio or check out her website here: http://www.haihsinhuang.com

You can also hear Huang talk about her work and the drawings in this book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbB_swXHkc

 

Publication Date: 2016

OCLC: 974374809

Accession Number: ECUAD.119840591

You can place the book on hold to come view it in the library here.

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