Three Constitutions

[New York: Russell Maret, 2021. Over the past five years, the content of my printing has steadily changed. Despite my past aversion to overtly political artists' books, the social and political upheavals that have riven this country into splinters have slowly seeped into my work. The outrage that has been building inside of me for decades has attained a level of urgency that I can no longer ignore - from the criminal policies of Bush's war on terror, to Obama's enthusiastic embrace of drone assassinations, to the Republican Party's use of Congress for minority rule... Edition limited to 90 copies numbered 1-87 and 3 unnumbered proofs; 3 volumes (1 folio, 2 octavos) in a gray cloth clamshell box. "The book was inspired by the increasingly contentious conflict between 'originalists,' those who view the Constitution as a prescriptive cultural artifact delineating American 'civilization,' and those who view the Constitution as a flexible instrument conceived to adapt to the evolving political, social, and racial realities of American 'nationhood'." 1) Folio: The full text of the Constitution and its 27 Amendments, "set in a typeface that, though difficult to read, is legible once one becomes accustomed to its forms ... It is housed in a vitrine as if it were an immutable relic, rather than a living adaptable document." Designed by Russell Maret and printed by him and Sarah Moody between November 2020 and February 2021. All of the typefaces were designed by Russell Maret. The papers are Zerkall Book and Twinrocker Homemade. Amy Borezo designed and executed the binding at Shelter Bookworks. 2) Octavo 1: Constitution United States. The full text of the Constitution arrived at "by feeding the Constitution and its amendments through Google Translate ... first translated from English into Esperanto, then from Esperanto into Russian, Russian into Chinese, and Chinese back into English. Esperanto was chosen to represent the Utopian ideals of America's founders; Russian and Chinese to reference two of the primary disseminators of the internet-borne disinformation which has taken such firm root among Trump loyalists ... This process mimics the subtle but meaningful content-skewing that proliferates on the Internet and is subsequently echoed on certain more traditional media platforms." "These things, and so many more, have gradually changed my understanding of what I want to make and why I want to make it." 3) Octavo 2: Constitution. This volume is set in metal type and subsequently redacted by physically turning key words and phrases over and printing the underside of the type. The resulting text is not the hopeful re-write I would conceive; it is intended to reflect the cynical, ineffectual state of political discourse in the United States." "Three Constitutions is my response to these events and the culture that bred them."