Mesmer : secrets of the human frame

Creator

Dove, Toni

Date

• 1993

Publisher

New York, New York: Granary Books

Summary

• COLOPHON: "The description of the construction of the android is from Tomorrow's Eve written by Villiers de l'Ilse-Adam in 1886, University of Illinois Press, 1982. The story is a fiction about Thomas Edison. Edison's friend Lord Ewald, falls in love with a beautiful courtesan whom he considers to be the ideal of female beauty. He is shattered when she opens her mouth to speak and he discovers 'the soul of a bourgeois.' Edison takes pity on his friend and creates for him the perfect woman--an android.
• Mesmer, Secrets of the Human Frame was first mounted as a computerized slide and sound installation in the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage in 1990, a part of Art in the Anchorage, sponsored by Creative Time. It was presented as a radio piece in the 1991 New American Radio series and as an essay in the summer 1992 edition of TDR, the N.Y.U. Drama Journal.
• Mesmer, Secrets of the Human Frame by Toni Dove was published by Granary Books in New York City in 1993. The book was designed by Toni Dove. Tom Zummer was design consultant for type which was set on a Macintosh computer in Avenir, New Baskerville, Bembo, Peignot Demi, and Trajan with J.J. Gifford. Thanks to Brad Freeman and Phil Gallo for their contributions. The images were found, pillaged, zeroxed and collaged. The printing was done by Lori Spencer at the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, on a Heidelberg press. The paper is Warren's Lustro Dull and U.V. ultra. The binding was designed and engineered by Daniel Kelm and produced by the staff at The Wide Awake Garage. The edition consists of: 60 Copies, 10 Hors Commerce, 50 For Sale."
• Signed by the artist. Library holds copy 13/50.
• Printed from found images of medical drawings, swords, angels, x-rays and other objects. Contained in a silver, metal slip cover.