Third Person (Plural) artist’s book is the final instalment of the Third Person (Plural) trilogy. It acts as both a companion and a counterpoint to the multi-screen installation and feature-length collage film. The trilogy is rooted in an extensive archival collection of over 200 postwar U.S. informational films and newsreels sourced from the Library of Congress and the American National Archives. Originating as a quest to source documents of the early European integration processes in the post-war United States, the project unfolds into an expansive feminist re-reading of the hegemonic masculine gaze and its manifestation in material images. This is a bracing encounter with the gaze that produced the ‘image’ of the world as the new, Western order bound by the notion of a united Europe, the delirium of the Cold War and decolonisation processes.

Structured in eight chapters that mirror the film’s episodes, the book translates moving images into still photographs through the visual language of the illustrated popular press. Each chapter takes the form of a magazine issue, combining film stills, texts, and layered images that are approached differently through graphic design to create distinct visual and conceptual rhythms. The chapters are punctuated by ‘letters to the editor,’ which emerge as collaborative readings of the archival material and reflect a multiplicity of voices, with contributions by Eray Çaylı, Ciara Chambers, Claire Delahey, David Kazanjian, Shoair Mavlian, Andrei Siclodi, and Su Wei. In compiling and bounding together these episodes, the book transcends formal boundaries, existing simultaneously as a catalogue, an academic interpretation, and a compelling work of art.

Paperback Cover
Uncoated paper
17.5 x 21 cm, 192 pages
€30 £30 $40
300 copies
BÜCHS’N’BOOKS – Art and Knowledge Production in Context
ISBN 978-3-9502583-7-0
December 2025