Catholics. Iowa Research Online. University of Iowa. Matthew Thomas Runkle University of Iowa. Theses and Dissertations.

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1 University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 Catholics Matthew Thomas Runkle University of Iowa Copyright 2015 Matthew Thomas Runkle This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: Recommended Citation Runkle, Matthew Thomas. "Catholics." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Book and Paper Commons

2 CATHOLICS by Matthew T. Runkle A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Book Arts in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2015 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Julia Leonard

3 Copyright by MATTHEW T. RUNKLE 2015 All Rights Reserved

4 Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER S THESIS This is to certify that the Master s thesis of Matthew T. Runkle has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Book Arts at the May 2015 graduation. Thesis Committee: Julia Leonard, Thesis Supervisor Sara Langworthy Sara Sauers Cheryl Jacobsen

5 PUBLIC ABSTRACT Catholics is an artist s book, a limited-edition memoir that makes use of text, image, and tactility. It relates the author s Catholic upbringing as it interweaves several themes: Church history, pre-christian mythology, and the places where such spiritualities resonate with twentieth-century pop culture. ii.

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iv iii.

7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. An opening page from a prose section 6 Figure 2. Joan of Arc illustration 7 Figure 3. Saint Veronica illustration 8 Figure 4. Thérèse of Lisieux illustration 9 Figure 5. A page from Eulogia no. 1: Boys Town 10 Figure 6. A page from Eulogia no. 2: Confessional 11 Figure 7. A page from Eulogia no. 3: Dream Church 12 Figure 8. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 9. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 10. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 11. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 12. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 13. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 14. Wafer/Solar cross no Figure 15. The book s binding 20 iv.

8 Catholics is an artist s book, a limited-edition memoir that makes use of text, image, and tactility. It relates my Catholic upbringing as it interweaves several themes: Church history, pre-christian mythology, and the places where such spiritualities resonate with twentieth-century pop culture. The eight prose sections are both anecdotal and informational. Their design is a nod to twentieth-century trade publications books, but also periodicals. In these sections, magazines and newspapers recur as central objects, and the tell-all nature of the book s subject matter often feels worthy of the scandal sheets. Because of this, I ve drawn inspiration from the designers, compositors, and printers who once worked to produce mass-market ephemera. The prose sections are letterpress printed from The Times New Roman type, cast and set by M & H Type. Their titles and folios are printed from handset Spartan Heavy type selected from the University of Iowa Center for the Book s Type Lab collection [Figure 1]. The book s three illustrated saints here portrayed by Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead are directly referenced in the prose sections, as are the objects surrounding them. Their layout is inspired by the quincunx, a sacred formation where one central image is surrounded by four smaller objects at each corner. In Renaissance art, these four objects often represent aspects of the fourfold world: humors, elements, seasons, gospels, or some 1

9 other system of correspondences. Joan of Arc fends off childlike grotesqueries are they specters or saints [Figure 2]? Saint Veronica contemplates icons more crass than the one she clutches [Figure 3]. And Thérèse of Lisieux, her quincunx rotating into the fore- and backgrounds, smiles an epiphanic smile [Figure 4]. The book also features four illustrated page spreads. A family tree, included for reference, is laid out on an altar, the deadened eyes of its members looking more like bread than body. A crudely transformative quote from Carl Jung precedes the book s climax. And legendary quips by Tallulah Bankhead (with some cutting anti-clerical mockery) and Joan Crawford (her purported dying words) serve as illustrated epigraph and afterword. These illustrations were drawn with pencil, ink, and gouache on Bristol board, then scanned and laser printed. Also laser printed were the eulogiae, although these three portfolios in the spirit of acheiropoieta (icons generated miraculously rather than by human hand) rely heavily on collage. A note on the eulogiae: Sixth-century pilgrims to sacred sites in Europe carried away tiny clay or glass ampullae that contained traces of dirt, oil, or water found at the visited shrine. Diagrammatic images of the location were also rendered on the exteriors of these souvenirs. Each eulogia in Catholics attempts to conjure remembered space in a similar way: handwritten 2

10 text and collaged images function as both architecture and performance. In Boys Town, I attempt to create a papist Pleasure Island by contrasting stories of childhood sugar highs with events that reflect Church misogyny and violence [Figure 5]. In Confessional, I use closet imagery and fragments of muscle mags as I mimic the rhetoric of Augustine by addressing my confessions to Joan Crawford [Figure 6]. And in Dream Church, where elements of the hand-drawn illustrations start to invade, I try to spiritually rebuild by reflecting on my good fortune in meeting such a loving, inspiring, and ongoing collaborator [Figure 7]. In order to allow the reader some relief from the denser sections of prose and imagery, the book includes four interludes. They are of two types: chthonic and eremitic. The chthonic invokes sacred traditions associated with the underworld; the eremitic conjures the Christian custom of engaging with the desert as a site of spiritual seeking. These interludes backgrounds are letterpress printed from polymer plate halftones; their text is printed from Centaur type. Also included at intervals, always on the recto, is a series of seven communion wafers/ solar crosses. These images are surrounded by Bruce Rogers inspired frames printed from metal typographic ornaments that alchemically shift throughout the course of the book. The wafers/solar crosses animate their own narrative, a transmuting framework that comments on the book s other threads [Figure 8 14]. This sequence was also adapted into a suite of prints. I titled the book unaware of Brian Moore s novel of the same name, which also addresses 3

11 tensions caused by Vatican II; after discovering the book mid-project, I enjoyed reading it as I worked. Justin Green s groundbreaking graphic memoir, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary, explores similar territory as well, and was a huge influence, both visually and textually. I bound the edition of 25 books myself, and am grateful to the Caxton Club for funding its materials [Figure 15]. Catholics is a project that is animist. During its creation I ve tried to tap into the energetic potential of material objects, whether magazine scraps or metal ornaments collecting dust in inherited type cases. Catholicism is ornately melodramatic, but it didn t build that baroque on its own: the pagan cultures suppressed by the Church were also mined for their sacred objects and images, which were then repurposed to maintain the Roman hierarchy s power. And while Catholic traditions such as transubstantiation and acheiropoietia are concerned with an alchemical materiality, dogma has deadened any hope of real transcendence. Catholics is an attempt at subverting that co-optive past albeit a blind attempt: what happens when I move things around? What do these objects want? Transfiguration is elusive. Often, all I can ask for is some small spark. While I m interested in and inspired by the fine press printing tradition, I come from a zine-making background, which makes me privilege the staticky effect of the photocopier and the chimerical results of collage. I ve attempted to explore the tension between these 4

12 modes, as well as those of commercial book, magazine, and newspaper design and production, and to ultimately integrate them in this work. The result, I hope, relies on a scaffold of traditional design adorned with the material detritus that provoke memory: images that use the text as a launch point for their own various visual journeys. 5

13 Figure 1. An opening page from a prose section 6

14 7 Figure 2. Joan of Arc illustration

15 8 Figure 3. Saint Veronica illustration

16 9 Figure 4. Thérèse of Lisieux illustration

17 10 Figure 5. A page from Eulogia no. 1: Boys Town

18 11 Figure 6. A page from Eulogia no. 2: Confessional

19 Figure 7. A page from Eulogia no. 3: Dream Church 12

20 13 Figure 8. Wafer/Solar cross no. 1

21 14 Figure 9. Wafer/Solar cross no. 2

22 15 Figure 10. Wafer/Solar cross no. 3

23 16 Figure 11. Wafer/Solar cross no. 4

24 17 Figure 12. Wafer/Solar cross no. 5

25 18 Figure 13. Wafer/Solar cross no. 6

26 19 Figure 14. Wafer/Solar cross no. 7

27 20 Figure 15. The book s binding