So, you know how when you mosey around a museum looking at stuff, you feel totally self-conscious about whatever you say? I mean, Your Humble Blogger is like to say things to my Best Reader (either seriously or as jokes) that would sound very odd indeed to a guard or art enthusiast. Well, Judith Henry has a series of Overheard books from Universe Publishing, the first of which is Overheard at the Museum, and it turns out she was listening.
It’s an entertaining book, and although it seemed a bit mean-spirited at first, the inclusion of lines like “I’ve seen enough art for one day” and “I’m not going to leave until I see the Rodins” made me think that part of the point was that we all sound funny when you drift by our conversations. The reader’s intended reaction, it seems to me, is as much “Was she listening to me?” as “I can’t believe somebody said that!”
My problem with the book, though, was that it was in large part an art book itself, and I didn’t think much of it on that front. The overheard comments are printed in big chunky type on top of fuzzy black-and-white photos; you can get an idea of it from the gallery versions. I’d have preferred the lines presented as Jenny Holzer text (scrolling across the book’s pages), but that’s just me. In other words, “The idea is a lot better than the art!”
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.
Is there anything in the book that you wouldn’t hear by simply hanging out at a large museum for a day?
Perhaps the Holzer version will be possible when we get that electronic paper into mass production, um, any day now. Though it would certainly be possible as an ebook.
Well, you wouldn’t necessarily hear all the specific comments (“Want to see the Blue Period?”) but you’d hear lots of stuff that was a lot like them—and maybe funnier.
Thanks,
-V.