Jack and Betty Forever
Veronika Schäpers (artist, b. 1969); Shimizu Yoshinori (contributor, b. 1947)
Letterpress-print by zinc-cliches and linocut on Japanese exercise books
This book follows the two starring characters in Jack & Betty, the standard textbook used to teach English to Japanese students during the 1950's and 60's. The conversation enclosed is Jack and Betty's first exchange in thirty years. Using the colloquial patterns from the original textbook, both character detail their misfortunes since they parted, ranging from Jack's unemployment to Betty's father's death by suicide. Set on Japanese notebook paper, both English and Japanese in format, the book tells the story twice, once from left to right in English and once from right to left in Japanese.
