Dear Betty
My piece, Dear Betty, inspired by Betty Dodson’s book, Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving,
is yet another book. And like the vandalized original, it contains adult subject matter,
(one of Dodson’s illustrations), along with natural matter (a section of birch tree) and some
inorganic matter, wax and pink acrylic paint. I found the cover near where I live in Paris
just as I was wondering how I could best interpret Dodson’s book, and the fact that it
was vandalized. L’ILLUSTRATION (title of this old French book without pages) illustrates
Betty’s book and safeguards her work and my work. Perhaps this is safe sex after all.
My art practice combines collage, objects, aspects of surrealism and realism as well as
mail. I’ve made dozens of books myself, each of them very fragile. Some have even come
from castoffs, which I've covered with paint and glue and mailed to people across the
world. In this light, I was taken by the section in Dodson’s book where people like Earl R.,
of San Mateo, California wrote her. Here then, is my letter in book form, to Betty Dodson,
and her readers.
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