Unfortunate Events in the Life of Monsieur Baudelaire
Category: R
Year: 2018
Location: Saxmundham, Suffolk
Artist: Andrew Smith
Unfortunate Events in the life of Monsieur Baudelaire
(or M. Baudelaire discovers that all things decline irreversibly into disorder.)
By Andrew Smith – search instagram for: #UnfortunateEventsAlteredBook
Book altered: “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (book 2)” by Lemony Snicket (paperback donated by Norwich Library)
The following sections have Chapter number (in bold), title (underlined), with accompanying text (in quotes) taken directly from the relevant chapter of the original book (which in some cases suggested the process of altering), plus materials and process.
One M. Baudelaire finds there is no way back from fire
"I am sorry to tell you that the story begins with Baudelaire traveling along this most displeasing road, and from that moment on, the story only gets worse... Their misfortune began with an enormous fire that destroyed their home and killed both their loving parents"
~~~
Materials & process: pages are burnt, envelope made from copy of pages.
Two M. Baudelaire discovers things travel in one direction only (he drops his tea & cake)
“The cake was a magnificent thing, rich and creamy... and at that moment something happened which I’m sure will interest you.”
~~~
Materials & process: pages stained with tea & coffee, dried cake crumbs, receipt from afternoon tea at Shelley’s restaurant, broken antique China tea cup, enclosed in acetate.
Three M. Baudelaire finds that once something is done it cannot be undone
“this was the terrible thing that happened to Baudelaire”
~~~
Materials & process: pages dropped in the River Alde, river mud applied, reeds & other plants from foreshore added, pages soaked over several weeks & dried, enclosed in acetate.
Four M. Baudelaire gets lost in a maze, and tears up his latest work(the more pieces, the harder it is to reconstruct / same words, meaning is lost)
"One of the most difficult things to think about in life is one's regrets... for years afterward you will wish you had done something different."
~~~
Materials & process: each page torn into pieces in doubling sequence (2 pieces, 4 pieces, 8, 16, 32 etc), then attempted to put each page back together, pieces glued with tissue, photo of the maze showing page pieces being used as a paper trail, envelope made from copy of Somerleyton visitor leaflet.
Five M. Baudelaire finds that rust is his enemy & his friend
"That night felt like the longest and most terrible Baudelaire had ever had..."
~~~
Materials & process: pages soaked in rusty metal pieces over several weeks, pages wrapped around rusty saw blade, tied with cotton fabric strips, red paint applied – stored in white tissue tied with coarse string, chapter number added to outside.
Six M. Baudelaire flies into a panic as the notes and words get muddled
"Bad circumstances have a way of ruining things that would otherwise be pleasant."
~~~
Materials & process: book pages torn randomly, shredded music score (Messiaen and Charles Ives from Snape Maltings concert), compacted and glued into a ball, text from chapter applied to outer surface.
Seven M. Baudelaire gets lost in 'Brummagem', and loses the plot
“”Brummagem” is such a rare word for “fake””
~~~
Materials & process: pages glued onto old map of Britain (Birmingham highlighted), single sheet cut and folded in concertina style, stored in bio-degradable packet from NT magazine.
Eight M. Baudelaire has migraine, but gets sick when he dares to try an unconventional remedy
"it is very unnerving to be proven wrong, particularly when you are really right"
~~~
Materials & process: pressed willow leaves, birch bark etc glued to pages (monogram from Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal echoing medical symbol on first page), paper strips from ‘truth or dare’ game, envelope made from NGS open garden leaflet.
Nine M. Baudelaire gets hay fever, has a sneezing fit and concludes all 'Flowers are evil'...
"What happens in a certain place can stain your feelings for that location"
~~~
Materials & process: pressed flowers from ancient woodland & nature reserve, added flower heads from pollinating grass, hay fever tablet packet, envelope made from copy of title page of Baudelaire’s infamous book ‘Fleurs du Mal’ (Flowers of Evil).
Ten M. Baudelaire loses his script in the junk mail and cannot tell the truth from the lies
“not worth reading... the Boy Who Cried Wolf... the gullible villagers... the whole thing was a joke, the moral was not to lie.”
~~~
Materials & process: pages and samples of junk mail (including one for electronic ‘home’ assistant) cut or shredded and woven together, envelope originally containing junk mail saying (rather ominously) ‘THE OCCUPIER’.
Eleven M. Baudelaire does not conform to any pattern, but has trouble making sense of the pieces
“her face lit up the way it always did - when all the pieces of something were fit together properly"
~~~
Materials & process: book pages glued to vintage dress pattern (previously glued together), fixed into a knitting pattern (depicting father and son), text underlined in rainbow colours, magazine clipping of skirt added.
Twelve M. Baudelaire's latest work is stained beyond all decency
"He had marked his place with a small piece of paper... The Mamba du Mal, he read out loud, is one of the deadliest..."
~~~
Materials & process: book pages stained with Angostura bitters, slip of paper fixed to page with variation of ‘Black Mamba’ cocktail recipe (renamed as ‘Mamba du Mal’), pages stitched into vintage Savoy cocktail book cover, clippings of ‘deadly’ cocktail recipes attached.
Thirteen M. Baudelaire shreds the last chapter and finds that his words no longer make any sense
“If this were a book written to entertain small children, you would know what would happen... But this is a book about Baudelaire”
~~~
Materials & process: book pages shredded, shreddings from each page glued end to end, then all strips glued in one continuous strip, wound onto ribbon spool, chapter number added to outside.
About the book – altering ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ by Lemony Snickert.
The original book was “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (book 2)” by Lemony Snicket. I picked up the book from Noriko at the “Turn the Page Artists’ Book Fair” in Norwich in May 2018.
I knew nothing about this book series, so initially I was a little stuck about how I was going to alter this – but quite soon the “Unfortunate Events” suggested that I would subject the book or pages to certain “events”, such as accidental or random ‘damage’. I removed all the pages from their cover and decided to treat each chapter separately, and to apply a different process of altering to each chapter.
I also started to read the text and realised the main characters were called the Baudelaire children and spotted a few other references to Baudelaire (the French poet) – Mamba du Mal (Fleurs du Mal his most well-known book), Mr Poe (Edgar Allan Poe was Baudelaire’s translator)– so decided to spin a little narrative around Baudelaire. I had the idea that the altered book would be Baudelaire’s attempt at a children’s book (most unlikely if you know about his life and work), and while in England he had become beset by a number of mishaps or “Unfortunate Events” and the chapters had been damaged in various ways, thwarting his attempts to finish the book. I also imagined the chapters were being retrieved by Baudelaire’s friend Nadar (a pioneer of photography) – the fictional letter accompanying the altered book explains that the chapters are being sent to Baudelaire’s publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis.
Year: 2018
Location: Saxmundham, Suffolk
Artist: Andrew Smith
Unfortunate Events in the life of Monsieur Baudelaire
(or M. Baudelaire discovers that all things decline irreversibly into disorder.)
By Andrew Smith – search instagram for: #UnfortunateEventsAlteredBook
Book altered: “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (book 2)” by Lemony Snicket (paperback donated by Norwich Library)
The following sections have Chapter number (in bold), title (underlined), with accompanying text (in quotes) taken directly from the relevant chapter of the original book (which in some cases suggested the process of altering), plus materials and process.
One M. Baudelaire finds there is no way back from fire
"I am sorry to tell you that the story begins with Baudelaire traveling along this most displeasing road, and from that moment on, the story only gets worse... Their misfortune began with an enormous fire that destroyed their home and killed both their loving parents"
~~~
Materials & process: pages are burnt, envelope made from copy of pages.
Two M. Baudelaire discovers things travel in one direction only (he drops his tea & cake)
“The cake was a magnificent thing, rich and creamy... and at that moment something happened which I’m sure will interest you.”
~~~
Materials & process: pages stained with tea & coffee, dried cake crumbs, receipt from afternoon tea at Shelley’s restaurant, broken antique China tea cup, enclosed in acetate.
Three M. Baudelaire finds that once something is done it cannot be undone
“this was the terrible thing that happened to Baudelaire”
~~~
Materials & process: pages dropped in the River Alde, river mud applied, reeds & other plants from foreshore added, pages soaked over several weeks & dried, enclosed in acetate.
Four M. Baudelaire gets lost in a maze, and tears up his latest work(the more pieces, the harder it is to reconstruct / same words, meaning is lost)
"One of the most difficult things to think about in life is one's regrets... for years afterward you will wish you had done something different."
~~~
Materials & process: each page torn into pieces in doubling sequence (2 pieces, 4 pieces, 8, 16, 32 etc), then attempted to put each page back together, pieces glued with tissue, photo of the maze showing page pieces being used as a paper trail, envelope made from copy of Somerleyton visitor leaflet.
Five M. Baudelaire finds that rust is his enemy & his friend
"That night felt like the longest and most terrible Baudelaire had ever had..."
~~~
Materials & process: pages soaked in rusty metal pieces over several weeks, pages wrapped around rusty saw blade, tied with cotton fabric strips, red paint applied – stored in white tissue tied with coarse string, chapter number added to outside.
Six M. Baudelaire flies into a panic as the notes and words get muddled
"Bad circumstances have a way of ruining things that would otherwise be pleasant."
~~~
Materials & process: book pages torn randomly, shredded music score (Messiaen and Charles Ives from Snape Maltings concert), compacted and glued into a ball, text from chapter applied to outer surface.
Seven M. Baudelaire gets lost in 'Brummagem', and loses the plot
“”Brummagem” is such a rare word for “fake””
~~~
Materials & process: pages glued onto old map of Britain (Birmingham highlighted), single sheet cut and folded in concertina style, stored in bio-degradable packet from NT magazine.
Eight M. Baudelaire has migraine, but gets sick when he dares to try an unconventional remedy
"it is very unnerving to be proven wrong, particularly when you are really right"
~~~
Materials & process: pressed willow leaves, birch bark etc glued to pages (monogram from Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal echoing medical symbol on first page), paper strips from ‘truth or dare’ game, envelope made from NGS open garden leaflet.
Nine M. Baudelaire gets hay fever, has a sneezing fit and concludes all 'Flowers are evil'...
"What happens in a certain place can stain your feelings for that location"
~~~
Materials & process: pressed flowers from ancient woodland & nature reserve, added flower heads from pollinating grass, hay fever tablet packet, envelope made from copy of title page of Baudelaire’s infamous book ‘Fleurs du Mal’ (Flowers of Evil).
Ten M. Baudelaire loses his script in the junk mail and cannot tell the truth from the lies
“not worth reading... the Boy Who Cried Wolf... the gullible villagers... the whole thing was a joke, the moral was not to lie.”
~~~
Materials & process: pages and samples of junk mail (including one for electronic ‘home’ assistant) cut or shredded and woven together, envelope originally containing junk mail saying (rather ominously) ‘THE OCCUPIER’.
Eleven M. Baudelaire does not conform to any pattern, but has trouble making sense of the pieces
“her face lit up the way it always did - when all the pieces of something were fit together properly"
~~~
Materials & process: book pages glued to vintage dress pattern (previously glued together), fixed into a knitting pattern (depicting father and son), text underlined in rainbow colours, magazine clipping of skirt added.
Twelve M. Baudelaire's latest work is stained beyond all decency
"He had marked his place with a small piece of paper... The Mamba du Mal, he read out loud, is one of the deadliest..."
~~~
Materials & process: book pages stained with Angostura bitters, slip of paper fixed to page with variation of ‘Black Mamba’ cocktail recipe (renamed as ‘Mamba du Mal’), pages stitched into vintage Savoy cocktail book cover, clippings of ‘deadly’ cocktail recipes attached.
Thirteen M. Baudelaire shreds the last chapter and finds that his words no longer make any sense
“If this were a book written to entertain small children, you would know what would happen... But this is a book about Baudelaire”
~~~
Materials & process: book pages shredded, shreddings from each page glued end to end, then all strips glued in one continuous strip, wound onto ribbon spool, chapter number added to outside.
About the book – altering ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ by Lemony Snickert.
The original book was “A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Reptile Room (book 2)” by Lemony Snicket. I picked up the book from Noriko at the “Turn the Page Artists’ Book Fair” in Norwich in May 2018.
I knew nothing about this book series, so initially I was a little stuck about how I was going to alter this – but quite soon the “Unfortunate Events” suggested that I would subject the book or pages to certain “events”, such as accidental or random ‘damage’. I removed all the pages from their cover and decided to treat each chapter separately, and to apply a different process of altering to each chapter.
I also started to read the text and realised the main characters were called the Baudelaire children and spotted a few other references to Baudelaire (the French poet) – Mamba du Mal (Fleurs du Mal his most well-known book), Mr Poe (Edgar Allan Poe was Baudelaire’s translator)– so decided to spin a little narrative around Baudelaire. I had the idea that the altered book would be Baudelaire’s attempt at a children’s book (most unlikely if you know about his life and work), and while in England he had become beset by a number of mishaps or “Unfortunate Events” and the chapters had been damaged in various ways, thwarting his attempts to finish the book. I also imagined the chapters were being retrieved by Baudelaire’s friend Nadar (a pioneer of photography) – the fictional letter accompanying the altered book explains that the chapters are being sent to Baudelaire’s publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis.