A Spectacle and Nothing Strange

By Eve Fowler

This summer I made 20 silkscreen posters, like the ones that are posted around LA advertising concerts, boxing matches and other events. The text on my posters came from Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons. I placed these posters in public spaces around Los Angeles.

I have been working with this particular text in various ways for about a year. Some of the posters read: "A spectacle and nothing strange," "A difference of very little difference," "Very like the last time," "There are the ones who do see me," "A narrative of like and like it," "Very different but much more" and so on. I'm interested in the multiple interpretations a viewer can have seeing this text in public. I'm also interested in making something that is accessible to everyone, or at least a very broad audience. I see Stein’s language as queer, in both senses of the word, but I think it is open-ended and can be understood in various ways.

I made one poster as a test and attached it to a fence on Beverly Blvd. where other signs like it were hung. I was curious about how long it would stay up and how it would survive the rain. While I was hanging the sign two boys, probably around 14, came over and looked at it. They walked away and then came back and asked me, "What is that?"

In other words, they were asking, "What does that phrase mean?" The text on the poster read, "This is it with it as it is". I told them it was a sentence from a book by Gertrude Stein, a writer I like. They said, "Oh, it's cool! It's like a tongue twister." I am interested in the idea that people will enjoy this language in some way.

At the end of this project, I’m going to place a sign in each of the locations where the other signs were hung. This one is color with no text with the exception of very small "Gertrude Stein" on the border of the poster where the name of the printer normally appears.

My previous work—photographs of the queer community, my wrapped lesbian library, and the collages I have been making for the last few years—has led me to this project that serves as homage to Gertrude Stein and queer writers in general. I've also been interested in modes of distributing art that are different from those that are institutional. In terms of this project I'm interested in direct public access in a vernacular way.

Eve Fowler is an artist living in Los Angeles.

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