French Fries

This artists’ book and performance piece is a rare and important creative exercise in graphic design published in printed offset lithography and issued in a limited edition of 700 copies. Described by Johanna Drucker in The Century of Artists' Books as "a carnivalesque-pop-art-amusement-motel-and-theme-park of visual and typographic devices." This book/play presents a day in the life of the original "Dream Queen" restaurant (a restaurant that grew to become the third largest burger chain in the western hemisphere). Before the book/play begins, 83-year-old Gertie Greenbaum is found dead in a pool of blood and ketchup. Four customers and three employees (each set in his or her own typographic voice and color) give testimony to how Gertie died and continue their day discussing food, money, religion, politics, love, loss, dreams, memories, and fading aspirations. The text is illuminated with icons and images that evoke the fast food tableau and the internal projections of the characters.