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Bungee Space, book launch, 23 April 2024, Tuesday, 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Bungee Space, 13 Stanton St, New York, NY 10002
RSVP Link: https://forms.gle/RJnsTMXh9xzSzd9KA
Poster design by Laslo Strong
Join us on April 23, 2024, Tuesday at 6:30 PM for the book release of D for Daughter by Swedish Artist Elina Birkehag, published by Spector Books. This book engages in a dialogue with a rarely studied writing system, connecting it to contemporary themes such as knowledge sharing, gossip, ecology, labor, and art. In conjunction with NYABF 2024, we are delighted to host this event, offering attendees the opportunity to view and read the book at Bungee Space, following with a conversation by the artist Elina Birkehag, the book designer Laslo Strong, and the publisher Anne König from Spector Books.
About D for Daughter
Deep in the woods in Dalarna, Sweden, scattered amongst stumps and newer growth trees, stand Scotch pine trees, hundreds of years old—thick, gnarled, and covered with carvings. The messages inscribed into their trunks were made by female shepherds who, between the seventeenth and the early twentieth century, left their villages to live and work together on the fäbod (summer farm), and lead their families’ cattle to graze. While out in the pastures, these young women carved dates, their initials, and notes to each other. The trunks became inscribed with a kind of frenetic teenage scrawl, a coded language, an assertion of their existence: HERE WE CARVE OUR NAMES.
The artist Elina Birkehag grew up in a village not far from these woods. She has searched and documented the carved messages on the trees—a “living” archive that will also die, decompose, and eventually disappear. Her book collects written notes, drawings, photographs, and other findings, which connect us with the female shepherds and allow us to read the trees.
With contributions by Quinn Latimer, Meg Miller, Matilda Kenttä & Linnea Rutz, Jungmyung Lee, Jennie Tiderman-Österberg, and Amelia Groom & M. Ty, the book forms a dialogue with this barely-studied writing system and relate it to contemporary themes of knowledge sharing, gossip, ecology, labour, and art.
Graphic design and co-editing by Laslo Strong.
Published by Spector books : https://spectorbooks.com/book/elina-birkehag-d-for-daughter
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