Wood River Blue Pool by Jo Ann Walters
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Wood River Blue Pool is photographer JoAnnWalters’ portrait of women, girls and families in and around her hometown of Alton, Illinois in the 1980s and 1990s.
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A sumptuous satin-wrapped cover evokes the fashions of Walters’ subjects and the suburban yards and other green spaces they inhabit. Contrasting pink foil type was selected to feel both sweet and unsettling.
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An essay by Laura Wexler places the work in dialogue with the history of racist violence undergirding Alton’s social landscape. Her text is offset from Walters’ images by a change in paper and color, with green and blue again selected to evoke the book’s garden spaces.
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Blue Pool Cecilia, EmmaKemp’s companion text, is equal parts travelogue, true crime drama and artist’s portrait. The book can stand alone or nest into a depression stamped on the cover of its parent, allowing the two to be presented as a set. When assembled, the title Wood River Blue Pool remains visible.
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Space is left throughout the book for images that are described but never revealed.
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Photographs by Jo Ann Walters
Text by Laura Wexler and Emma Kemp
Published by Image Text Ithaca
Printed by Ofset Yapimevi