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.
available at British Library
“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
