two WORDS BEGINNING WITH H
.......in February 1996, over the course of one week, 827 local telephone calls were made from an empty council flat in the heart of Bristol City Centre. One question was asked: "What is the difference between a house and a home for you?"
The book itself is reminiscent of a wallpaper sample book in design, its dimensions are based upon the size of a standard house brick. Contained within a sleeve made from grocery cardboard boxes each page is handcut and assembled, bound together by steel bolts and wingnuts between a backplate of 3mm glass and a front page of black abrasive paper, suggesting roofing felt. The text pages of the book are interspersed with wallpaper samples and other domestic papers and fabrics such as: silver foil, net curtain, blanket, newspaper, sewing pattern tissue and many others.
“What Kirsten Lavers' bookwork '2 words beginning with h' shows is the way that women artists - with their training in making the best from often very little - produce work of exceptionally high quality with even a modest amount of proper funding and time. ... Infinite riches in a little (wallpapered) room.”
Amanda Sebestyen
Make - the magazine of women's art Issue No 76
“A little brick of textures and materials, '2 words beginning with h' started with a small but perfectly formed conceit and became a subtle take on the housing question. Over 800 calls were made earlier this year to randomly chosen households all posing the same question: "What is the difference between a house and a home for you?" The best 100 replies (No 13: "a mother") are collected here, bookended by glass and cardboard, and interspersed with swatches of curtain, wallpaper, gingham and other domestic papers. The answers range from the practical (No 29: "With a council home you can't build a garage but with a private home you can"), the obvious (No 62: "the spelling") and the sweetly poignant (No99: "house keeps the wind and rain out, I'm 84 too").”
The Big Issue No 209 Nov 25 - December 1 1996
Published in a numbered edition of 100 22cm x 11cm x 4.5cm, 178 pages
ISBN 0 9529311 09
