CAKE

Two Ponds Press is delighted to pull our second fine press book edition by Cig Harvey, out of the oven. CAKE is a continuation of the conversation started in Eat Flowers which was released during the pandemic, and it feels celebratory in the wake of that difficult time. Just try to say "cake" without smiling. Impossible. The mouth spreads east, west and irresistibly north at the corners, pulled up further by sprinkles of memories held for a lifetime.

Many of the cakes were made by Cig’s twelve-year-old daughter Scout, often impossibly precarious, decorated with wildly dripping abandon, even sent inexplicably floating on a river or into an inferno. These are confections gone wild, hinting at danger, decadence, and the ephemeral nature of beauty. As a series of images, along with the artist’s evocative text, they are a saucy celebration that serve as metaphor for the passing of time—living and dying, full of the sweetness, bitterness, and unknowable elements that we all must navigate. It is at once a party and memento mori—a reminder to stop wasting time, agonizing over the past, and dreading the future. Cig is imploring us to embrace our one wild life with optimism while acknowledging its heartbreaks and complexities.

Cig is an archeologist of the senses, for which she has an uncanny extrasensory perception. She can make you squirm a bit because she is coming at you from all sides. There is an obvious seduction with color, form and beauty; then she gently guides us deeper with her storytelling, whispering in our ear. We lean in as all our senses are activated. She elevates the ordinary and knows exactly how to serve it forth.

There are a baker’s dozen photographs, thirteen images bound in the book, as well as an additional unbound print, titled Feast. Also included is the artist’s signature mind map, letterpress printed by Art Larson of Horton Tank Graphics. Graphic design and illustrations are by Anneli Skaar.

The edition of 40 is bound by four generations of binders, ten copies each by Gray Parrot, Claudia Cohen, Amy Borezo, and Gabby Cooksey. A veritable layer cake of extraordinary talent. Each binder was presented with a printed text block and given free rein.