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The Confederacy of Villages Catalog
Reader - Nico
Spider - Margo
Questions - Jamie
MAY - 2021

It's by a collective called the Confederacy of Villages. There is a list at the end of all the authors. The authors are also the sellers. The CoV seems to be a group of rural art venues, in 2021 or 2022. Coming from places like Grizedale and Inland.

There is no subtitle, it's only a catalogue and there is a date which says 2024. It is a one-off we think. There might be other catalogs coming each year, but we don't know. It seems to be the first as there is no number, just a date.

They announced that they need to make it for funding of their activities. It is heavy, it is completely obvious that they are making a "clanderie" ? making reference to the Whole Earth Catalog from 1968. The Whole Earth Catalog was very cheap and light, just black and white, easy to send by post. This one is very heavy, very arty, shiny pages, soft cover. It has the whole look of a modern catalog but with this feeling and reference to the layout of the Whole Earth Catalog. They played a lot with this reference in the design.

There is some colour in this version, it's not CMYK, they have used specific pantone references. It's not very messy but they have tried to make it look like there are more but actually only 2000 copies. There are 3 specific colours to put some pages in colour.

When you look inside, some of the pages are articles made by advertisers, always a reference to another product. There are some how-tos but mostly they use the products, like this recipe will be better with INLAND's cheese. It tells you how to use the INLAND cheese. It shows a risotto recipe, it doesnt show you how to make the cheese itself.

It's 250 pages or so. On the back cover it says of various sausages, cheeses, sticks, wallpapers, belts, smoking herb mixes, seated papers, high bacterial activity props, other paraphernalia.

From the outside, the cover is grey, white and black.

This book is in the CoV library but they also sell it, they have many copies. You can buy it in all the different places. You can find it also in classic art venues.

I remember that the editors say that you can find it online too. The url is included in the book.

The book is in English but you can find several languages / translations online.

He really enjoys the situation pictures. I remember the props, it's made for an urban child, I remember this product, like usual toys but also puppets. In the description and the picture, they show a child breathing and added infographics of things coming through the nose and the eyes, it makes a reference to the bacteria that comes from the rural that the urban child can have.

They are really into the demonstration pictures, like an esoteric manual. It's completely and always in between an advertisement and a science book.

They had a lot of fun making these images but they are real things you can buy. I know people who bought these 'classical t shirts' and props for their child. I dont remember the process of buying, we have to check.

The book is an art book. There is a shop on the website, you don't phone them up to pay.

The thanks in the book is for all the buyers.

We are curious about the reality of the economic system here. They say that they all stopped getting grants and they now function as art venues only with small amounts from a lot of people. This is part of their system for their venues and around 20 of them work like this.

Here there are no numbers or finances or data for how it works, so it remains abstract for the moment.

There are chapters for different activities – eating, like a forest, like in the country, like in the summer, it seems pretty much for various urban people feeling like they want to be in another place. They are selling some kind of Terroir there, also.

There is no industry but artisanal crafting stuff. You can see also some 3D things, potteries for example. It's obvious that it comes from different places.

The final editors, who seem to be INLAND, they had a hard time but also some fun making the other chapters. They had a list of products and it says in the editorial that it came from an open call to all the art venues to ask what do you sell? We will gather it in a catalog.

It has a price, 35eur

10 years ago, there were lots of catalogs like that, inspired by IKEA

Mass Walking (as a Village)
Reader - Margo
Spider - Jamie
Questions - Gregory
MAY - 2021

On the title page there is a woodcut image of people on a hill, with the caption "The Journey of the Martyrs".
The woodcut is the only image in the book.
The book looks as though it could have been screen printed. It smells nice, smells a bit dusty but nice.
The paper is quite high quality.
It looks like an old book, maybe around 1915.
It was found in an old library in Cornwall.
It says on the title page that it is a limited edition. Only 100 copies were printed.
Multiple authors - people who were present at the time of this village uprising and pilgrimage to a nearby hill. One author was the leader of this uprising.
A memoir of a village uprising that happened in the 1700s. This is a reprint of their original testimonies.
The village uprising was very well known at the time because one of the leaders was a woman, which is quite unusual for the time.
Mise-en-page - a lot of attention to details in the design and layout.
It is written in Cornish and Old English.
There are some translations of words that aren't in common use anymore. Words translated from Cornish and Old English to modern English (of the early 1900s)
It weighs as much as 3 apples, with a dust jacket.
There is a foreword by a historian, explaining the significance of this memoir.
It is published by a private press from Cornwall.
There are bits of paper folded inside - old receipts from previous owners of the book.
At the beginning there is a hand-written dedication to someone, written from with a date in the 1940s.