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Winner of the 2021 Svensk Bokkonst, Swedish Book Art Award, Shelf Life depicts the social and spatial landscape in and around that hallowed ground of American consumption, the Supermarket. The average North American supermarket is 40,000 square feet (12100 m²), roughly the size of a football field or an acre of land.
The commodified space we enter to partake, in this final destination of industrial food
production, is designed to generate maximum expenditure or ‘cart value.' Shelves of
over-produced food products bear little resemblance to the land, labor, plant forms
or animals from which they've been extracted.
In addition to a sequence of photographs, a poem unfolds a personal narrative of
resistance navigating a Mega Mart, lit up like a stadium, while attempting to purchase
just a couple of items. A mock Industry Marketing Report reveals proven strategies to
make us always buy more. Published as a limited-edition zine, Shelf Life’s printing
style replicates a supermarket discount catalog.
Self Published
Softcover
76 pages
317.5 x 368.3 mm
ISBN 9780578727639
