Sheherezade
The book shares the title of the famous story of Sheherezade. The premise follows that the king within the story decides to wed a new woman every day and kill the previous wife each day. Sheherezade saves her own life by telling fascinating stories to the king and stopping halfway through them each night. The king, in his anticipation for the endings of the stories, spares her life each day.
The artist book sharing this title takes the form of a traditional codex. It is presented in a flip book format. On the verso side of the book is an animation (when the reader flips the pages) of a woman repeatedly removing her coat. On the recto side of the book, the animation follows a cyclical process of zooming into the text to reveal new texts within the ink marks.
The illustration and corresponding context of the verso and recto serve as a remediation of the story. The presence of recto and verso afford two contrasted perspectives. In addition, the action of flipping the page – an interactive feature/experience attributed to the recto/verso form – mimics the anticipation that is reflected in the original telling of the story. The flipping of left to right and of right to left further emphasizes this notion of recto/verso.
Again, we see the form in question assist the book to relate to function.
