My cast of characters, most prominently I. This new edition exists as a singular object but contains the words included in the prior edition of the work, allowing me to both reckon with my initial annotations and the original words of Baldwin. The constant between these works is its emphasis on love and one’s understanding of its impact and implications. With this first edition the annotated scrawl from one was imprinted into the other one containing both Baldwin’s text and my annotations and the other containing only my annotations, removed from the essential context of Baldwin’s text. In my first iteration of this work, I created a paired edition of books which I saw as a surrogate representation of a pair of lovers. This new edition is a version of myself, a conduit which has grown alongside my own life and captures my evolving sense of self. I, as a person, had changed, my perspective shifted, and I came to have a different understanding of the text and its impact.

In the time between these two versions, I experienced for the first time what I thought was love and the statements I made in the margins of my first edition from 2019 didn’t necessarily hold true or properly represent the love I had come to experience. Giovanni’s Room (2020/2021) is a reconsideration of James Baldwin’s eponymous novel in an attempt to reckon with and reapproach the text and my initial handling of it in the fall of 2019. Current Work In Progress Hand-Bound Hardcover Book with zeroxed and Risograph printed interiors, and Loose Risographed inserts.

Giovanni's room first edition