Early Works - Video Art, 1981-83

This small collection of early experimental video art works by Lynn Book marked a transition from professional, which is to say corporate, media started to move into the hands of artists, often by way of surveillance systems which relied on inexpensive, low grade equipment for the purpose. Book got her hands on a black and white video camera, a beta videotape portapack and a ¾” U-matic editing deck, all provided by Richard Reep, the adventurous photography instructor at the Memphis College of Art. Included here is “Appearance, some semblance”, a social studies oriented video predicated on a basic set of questions put to passers by in a public location. “Two Heads” was a formally constructed, black and white video art work directed by Book, who used a ‘character generator’ overlay of geometric shapes and lines that furthered her investigation of ideas of separation, intimacy and obstruction in relationships. The running time is Book was involved with a small cadre of media explorers in Memphis through the public television station, founded by Tav Falco called “Televista”. She had access to the editing studio there which she used to edit this piece and also, with what was called a ‘character generator’ overlay geometric shapes and lines that furthered her investigation of ideas of separation, intimacy and obstruction in relationships. There were other works that Book shot and edited that are no longer in existence, such as “Silence is Golden, Silence is Broken” and a documentary of “Ironing Board Sam”, a Black blues musician who’d found some fame by an appearance on “Real People”, the first syndicated ‘reality’ television show. In his current incarnation, he became an underwater keyboardist and singer in a special tank he would immerse himself in.