Even the apple | Balas and Wax

Even the Apple is an artists’ book and sculptural installation connecting the families’ histories of the authors to cycles of perishability in food production and urban development.

Referencing the meticulous packaging of mail order fruit gift boxes, the book consists of six vellum sheets wrapping apples nested in a foam bed. Beneath the foam bed lies a 16-page book on Japanese papers which evoke the tissue used in fruit packaging.

The 16-page unbound book nestling under the foam is a sheaf of 16 black-and-white photo-inkjet prints on fine papers. The book is unbound to allow for its readers to re-sequence pages as they please.

The book’s text pages include poems and graphics that explore perishability through the lenses of apples, hotels, cities, and our ancestral histories. The book includes versions of the graphic poems “The Radial Model” and “Cultivation Cycles in a Metropolitan Area”

Technical Specifications

Authors: Balas & Wax (Susy Bielak and Fred Schmalz)

Formato: The cherry wood and glass lidded box contains the book. Within the box is a removable 2″ foam layer die-cut to nest six apples wrapped in printed vellum. Beneath that layer is a second layer of foam with a cutout for a 16-page unbound book.

Materials: two cherry wood boxes, glue, glass.

Publisher: –

Dimensions: 43 x 25 x 19 cm (box closed)

Print run: 20 copies

Language: English

Collections: –

Year of publication: 2017