Blood on Blood

By Mare Blocker

Every family has its quirks, and this is the long lost photo album of one of the quirkiest families you'll ever meet. The book appears much like an old photo album, with black pages and black and white "photos"--which are actually linoleum cuts, printed in black ink on white Magnani Pescia paper by the artist. The prints, naturally, are mounted with black photo corners. The text, letterpress printed in silver ink, tells the accompanying story for each picture. These are the stories of an artist who has spent "twenty years mining my loved ones for material for my work."

There is, for instance, Uncle Bob: "My uncle Bob worked at Sears. He had a tree in his rec-room that died and was just like the fake tree in the furniture department where he worked. Every day, for years, he walked by that fake tree and plucked off a leaf, so he could glue it on his dead tree first thing when he got home. Then he retired."

Mare Blocker's books have something that rarely comes through in other artists' books: a sense of humor.

- Judith Klau

• • M Kimberly Press Artists' Book.
• • Letterpress with linocut illustrations.
• • Spiral bound photo album
• • Edition of 36