Peter Downsborough, 1940 New York, USA
BESIDE (1976)
A slim volume divided into three ‘chapters’:
1. First page blank, on facing page ‘containing’.On next page ‘this,’ opposite page ‘that,’. The next two pages both carry two 6.2 cm vertical parallel lines are set .5 cm apart. On the left page they are placed upper left and on the facing page upper right. This two line pattern repeats on 14 pages, then the first change occurs and on the next two pages the lines have shifted to the bottom half and are placed adjacent to the gutter. Another shift takes place on the next page, the two lines have separated, one is at the top and the other at the bottom. Their placement is set to the left of the page retaining the .5 cm distance apart. The lines on the facing page are still parallel but have been moved to bottom right. This pattern changes sides on the next two pages. With the fourth change the lines on the left page remain together – bottom left = and those on the right are reunited at top left. Turning the page the lines are now placed mid page to the left on the left page and have again separated on the right page, one top right and the other bottom right. In the next move the two lines are now mid right of the left page and the right page repeats the pattern from two pages back. Turning the page we are surprised by a photograph of a house (87 Greencroft Gardens, London NW6) on the right page, while on the left the lines are placed lower right next to the gutter. These two lines are adjacent to a pole in the photograph. The pattern of the two lines repeated on 14 pages towards the beginning of the book is repeated for the next fourteen pages. Turnng the page the left page is blank. and on the facing page is written ‘alongside’.
2. First two pages are blank. Photographs appear on the next two pages – On the left (Cafe de la Terrace, Oreé de la Foret, Poissy, France) and on facing page (17 Avenue de Mot, Bruxells, Belgium). In each photograph are two parallel poles approximately .5 cm apart.
3. Two blank pages are followed by another blank page on left with the familiar two lines placed mid page in the centre on right hand page. This placement is repeated on the next page with the right page this time blank. The next two pages are blank. The word ‘beside’ appears on the next page with ‘______this’ on the facing page. 72 pp. 16.9 x 11.5 cm. Michael Hobbs, Sydney.
Schraenen, Guy 1993, Peter Downsborough The Books Die Bücher, Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, Bremen. (Band 6 der Sammlung Künstlerbücher)
Moline, K and Campbell, K (comp.) 1987, IN PRINT. Vol.1. Artists’ Books, The Power Gallery of Contemporary Art, The University of Sydney