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Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry
Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry | Leanne Shapton
7 posts | 6 read | 7 to read
Auction catalogs can tell you a lot about a persontheir passions and vanities, peccadilloes and aesthetics; their flush years and lean. Think of the collections of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Truman Capote, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. In Leanne Shapton's marvelously inventive and invented auction catalog, the 325 lots up for auction are what remain from the relationship between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris (who aren't real people, but might as well be). Through photographs of the couple's personal effectsthe usual auction items (jewelry, fine art, and rare furniture) and the seemingly worthless (pajamas, Post-it notes, worn paperbacks)the story of a failed love affair vividly (and cleverly) emerges. From first meeting to final separation, the progress and rituals of intimacy are revealed through the couple's accumulated relics and memorabilia. And a love story, in all its tenderness and struggle, emerges from the evidence that has been left behind, laid out for us to appraise and appreciate. In an earlier work, Was She Pretty?, Shapton, a talented artist and illustrator, subtly explored the seemingly simple yet powerfully complicated nature of sexual jealousy. In Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morrisa very different yet equally original bookshe invites us to contemplate what is truly valuable, and to consider the art we make of our private lives.
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sarahljensen
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Pickpick

Go find this book. It's so well done. It's an account of a fictional couple's relationship told through an auction catalog. Really smart and interesting. I was very impressed my local library had it.

brit91 Beautiful cat!😻😻😻 5y
3 likes1 comment
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vivastory
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After being thoroughly unsettled by Säcken, I'm taking a break from Miéville's story collection & reading the tagged. Telling the story of a relationship, & ensuing breakup, in the format of an auction catalog containing the keepsakes & ephemera of their lives. Intriguing so far.

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tjwill
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I am entranced by the lives of these fictional people, and love the way the author/artist set up their story through their belongings. Also, I‘m wondering who the people in all these pictures are since it is fictional. Actors? Friends of the author?

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tjwill
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This book is fascinating. It is told as an auction catalog of the items that make up a couple‘s relationship, so the mementos detail the course of their relationship as it changes.

Zelma Sounds kind of like The Lover‘s Dictionary by David Levithan. It‘s a love story told via words and definitions. 6y
tjwill @Zelma I feel like I‘ve seen that in bookstores before but never realized it was actually a story. I‘ll have to check it out. 6y
Zelma @tjwill I really liked it. And yes, it‘s a story of a relationship. 👍 6y
37 likes3 comments
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tjwill
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My books that I bought with my birthday gift card came in! #longtitles #bookmail

42 likes3 comments
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onthebookside
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What a unique book! The story of a couple is told through an auction catalog. It is quite the experiment with different forms.

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kaylaraeintheway
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Pickpick

A relationship told through seemingly mundane objects, displayed as an auction catalogue. Unexpectedly hit close to home. Brilliant in its execution.