Artists' Books - Artists
Annie Tremmel Wilcox


Above: Cover of Annie Tremmel Wilcox's Dress Whites, 1997.

Dress Whites was "prepared for Christmas 1997" and each "copy is bound in a linen cocktail napkin" (Wilcox, colophon).

In addition to the story, Dress Whites also include the recipe for Murphy Pads, an hors d'oeuvres Wilcox's mother learned how to make from her mother, who is also described as an excellent hostess.


Right: The first page of Dress Whites. The text of this artists' book is typed, but the font resembles handwriting.

Below: An enlargement of the text from the first page.


Left: The text from the the above page.

Annie Tremmel Wilcox's artists' book Dress Whites tells the story of the carefully planned and orchestrated cocktail parties her mother and father used to host. According to Wilcox, these cocktail parties which were her mother's battlefields. In the story, Annie Tremmel Wilcox likens her mother's precisely starched linen napkins to her father's old dress whites hanging in his bedroom closet.

 


Above: An example of how the typed and handwritten pages are intermingled in Wilcox's artists' book Slow Food.

Colophon:

"Thanks to Mrs. Henry Novotny for writing out these recipes long ago and first creating this compilation. This version is 1/1. Annie Tremmel Wilcox 1997."


Above: The cover of Annie Tremmel Wilcox's Slow Food. This artists' book is bound in a spiral notebook that measures 5" x 7 7/8". Inside, the text is typed on 17 pages and interspersed between pages of handwritten cake recipes.


The opening paragraph of Slow Food.
Slow Food explores Annie Tremmel Wilcox's mother's interest in cooking, and her families reaction to these elaborate meals. Specifically, it examines her mother's fried chicken and how, even after ceasing to cook, her mother would still "fix" the fast food version of fried chicken, making it her own by adding special elements and serving it on her good china, rather than merely serving what came out of the greasy bucket.
-END-

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