Intervention 2 Madeleine Walton 12th - 19th October 2011

Continuing with Lou's theme of removal using the hole-punch as my tool I removed as many 'o' letters and zeros I could find. This was difficult as the hole-punch itself is constraining as it has limited reach into the page. 
After removing as many as I could remove throughout the book I had a huge pile. I then sorted through the words, numbers and letters, remembering that there are two sides to the paper so I always had a choice.I found that I had many full words: 'of','to, 'on' - some thirty of each and I went through the book using my medium glue to stick these over the matching words in the text. 
I also had partial fragments of words 'ould', 'ore', 'ough', 'ener' and found words containing these letters and glued them over.
Then I started altering words, so 'pig' became 'peck', 'sun' became 'sin', 'but' became 'hut' and this in turn completely changed the sense of the text giving sentences like "It shows a sun behind clouds" becomes "it shows a sin behind clouds" and "What needs to be added to Cicero's account" becomes "Salt needs to be added to Cicero's account". 
For the next stage I created new words. "The Age of Reason" became "The Age of Reasone", 'Louvre' became 'Loova', 'Venus' became 'Voyus'.
When I came across 'symobolic images' that Lou had underlined but overlooked I altered those words so they made no sense.
I replaced as many zeros as I could with blanks. I then altered numbers '100' became '1000' etc.
Italian text is used in the book and I substituted Italian words for English and visa versa.
When I finally got to the images in the appendix my own creativity takesover.
As I moved through the book I became less careful with letting the glue dry before turning the page as pages began to get stuck together.

The whole process was obsessive and compulsive. I was continually adding what I had subtracted and in the process leaving my trace. Every page has at least one intervention. The feel of the page is no longer smooth due to my interventions.

Intervention 1 Lou Hazelwood 5th October 2011 - 12th October 2011

All Symbolic Images have been removed. I have removed all repetitions of these two words from the book. This statement 'All symbolic images have been removed' is bold. It also can refer to a double meaning, Does this then create some intrigue?

This process has been an obsessive task definitely not a  therapeutic one.

At points I found myself 'getting lost' in the text rather than the task; a mantra enabled me to re-focus 'symbolic images, symbolic images, symbolic images'.

Tippex, liquid for the cover, roller dry strips for the convenience and time constraints for inside, was used to remove all symbolic images. Removing the title and all its repetitions of these words throughout the book, I was surprised at how few symbolic images there were. Somehow there was an expectation that the book would be full of symbolic images and maybe it is  but these weren't evident in its repetitions of these particular words, as its bold statement (title) led me to believe.

Leaving torn markers (yellow post it notes), initially a reminder of where the symbolic images were circled in pencil, are now directing you towards the tippex-ed words. Deliberately marking the intervention, there is no room for subtlety to be present. They have created almost a 'hair-do' for the book and I have a fantasy that someone will 'topiary' them.

Of course there is power in being the first to intervene with the book but I have not regarded this as a responsibility. Therefore no thought has been given to how this may impact on others interventions, whether it will hinder, help or be of no consequence remains to be see.

How it all began