EDITION

JAMIE CREWE: FALSE WIFE COMMENTS

708 pages, 104mm x 147mm x 42mm. Edition of 40, plus artist’s proofs. September 2023.

 

False Wife Comments is a new edition by Jamie Crewe, and a major new work of writing. It presents text taken from False Wife (2022), alongside newly-written commentary and a new drawing of a bòcan. It was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh Art Collection. 

The edition, printed by The Holodeck, Birmingham, has a textured cover, thermoset in neon green on black card. Its 708 pages are perfect bound, and it has a neon green satin ribbon. The paper is 80gm in off-white and fluorescent green.

The condensed text which appears in False Wife’s video is presented here (on odd-numbered pages, in Helvetica Neue font) in a partial recreation of the fragmented, declarative rhythm in which it appears onscreen. The commentary (presented on even-numbered pages, in Times New Roman font) expands on these statements: new writing is formed from thoughts, references and images noted during the conception and creation of the work, and from its aftermath.

The model or spatial metaphor for the website of False Wife, discussed with its programmer Josh Anio Grigg, was a castle in a snowstorm: first a lowly person encounters an entrance of great doors, promising shelter; then a warm and grand reception room, displaying generosity; then a less grand utility room, which suggests straying from the presentable path; then a fundamental cave which holds a secret that transfixes. This is like a trap. The model or spatial metaphor for False Wife Comments is a dwelling to which the lowly person retreats after seeing the castle’s secret (having escaped or been released). They are haunted or enthralled by what they’ve seen: the text is hidden in the aisins or under a loose flagstone, and is returned to in greedy secrecy. It is pendulous with commentary, fixated upon, and pressed to the nose for its precious and fading redolences—like Mark’s jumper.

 

Editions availabe for £180 plus postage and packaging. PDF version available on request.