08/06/2026
This past academic year, the Art Library asked our students to highlight our unique collection of artists' books. The students were tasked with taking pictures of an artist's book of their choosing and then writing a short explanation of their feelings, experiences, or interest in the specific piece. To find out more about Oberlin College Libraries' Artists' Books Collection, visit dcollections.oberlin.edu/digital/collection/artistsbook
Artist's Book: Radical Food: Carrot Love - Carrot S*x: May 1-July 31, 1993
Creator: Coco Gordon
Review by Leo Slattery '29
"I picked RADICAL FOOD: carrot love-carrot s*x by Coco Gordon, published in 1993. Photos do not do this book justice: some pages are closer to traditional paper, some are more fibrous, some are collages where one can feel the added elements, some pages are translucent revealing a faded ghost of the page beneath. Throughout the book, small photos appear at the bottoms of the otherwise vacant pages. In these photos, one can almost make out a woman, or items of craft and food. Small pieces of collage are scattered throughout the book, made up of impossible-to-describe objects coming together to form an even more impossible form. There are also short poems written, some so small they fill a corner of the page, some so large the text runs off the page, some so layered with other poetry the reader is unable to ascertain a full sentence. A full essay is in the middle of the book, describing through a sort-of-ekphrasis-prose-poem other images similar to the ones that appear as images in the book. " Leo Slattery, OC 2029
