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By: Sarah Nicholls, pamphleteer
Year: 2018
Published by: Brain Washing from Phone Towers, Brooklyn
Process: screen printing
Binding: hand sewn
Pages: This book is made of 2 sheets that become different configurations depending on how you open it: 8 pages when opened one way; 6, 7, or 12 another and probably other configurations I have not discovered yet
Size: 10 1/8 in x 4 3/16 in
Cover: cardstock
Color: silver, grey, teal, green, orange and maroon ink
Edition Size/Print Run: 250
Web site: https://www.brainwashingfromphonetowers.com/
I first encountered Sarah Nicholls’ elegantly produced publications at the 2018 New York Art Book Fair. I found myself immediately communing with the care and craft that went into them. Each is screen printed and hand sewn. Her latest, Homesteading for the Urban Coyote, reflects on the shrinking rural habitat for many animals, and how some are adapting to and thriving in urban settings.
Opening and reading this publication is a spatial and temporal journey that slows down your interactions and confounds expectations. There is nothing gratuitous in the design and execution; it has a wonderfully sparse economy that generates reflection and pleasure in the wonders of physical books and how they deliver their contents.
The thing I am missing is this book is more specific localized knowledge beyond basic introductions of concepts. In, 2011, my family and I went to an exhibition, Biopolis: Wild Berlin (https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin ... ild-berlin), about wild species moving into Berlin. The exhibition gave a specific history of the city, its surrounding land use changes, and why this was happening there. I want more information specifically about how coyotes are infiltrating NYC, and what the hyper-local conditions are that are producing this change. This, however, is not the purview of a pamphlet, rather this desire is just what a pamphlet should create.
One other concern I have is when Nicholls finds hope in cities because of the coyotes’ relocation. I do not share her optimism; it is destruction induced by city dwellers’ consumption of other landscapes and their resources that drove the decimation of habitat in the first place. Yes, she argues, some people will see the coyotes and understand themselves as part of nature, but not as many who would have the realization from being immersed in intact or restored wild spaces. Cities will collapse if we don’t dismantle them and undo their harm. This is the history of civilizations: they all eventually fail.
None of my above concerns diminishes my esteem for and enjoyment of this pamphlet. It is necessary work. I am a dedicated fan of Nicholls’ work and can't wait for more!
