Book in hand

When picking up the book, it seems very heavy but not too heavy, a good weight. The first thing noticed is the indent of the blue part to the book making it seem like another book has been placed inside of this book. This part is covering Cammy’s face. Standard book portrait size.

Paper and ink

The photos are on plain white paper throughout the book. Inserts can also be found throughout the book on different types of paper thin paper. Almost every image is colored there are no black and white images.

Format, size and orientation

The book is portrait but features landscape photos as well  throughout the book. It has a hardcover. The book is just under A4 size-19.00 x 26.50 cm and contains 172 pages.

Design and layout

There are multiple sizes to images in the book such as A3, A4, A5 etc. There are multiple full bleed images as well as framed images. There fold outs under/between large A3 images which personally I thought was very creative. There were a number of inserts throughout the book. There were also many landscape and portrait photos.

Rhythm and sequencing

The sequencing was something I was very impressed with and in some ways it was a large contribution to the emotional connection many readers experienced. It allowed the shock the reader experienced a little bit closer the families shock the family must have experienced. It builds the narrative and allows the reader to witness how such a great family and upbringing Cammy even from the Cammy’s own words she says she has ‘amazing parents’. This is then disturbed by an insert from the newspaper of her death. This sudden change in tone is meant to shock the reader. There are multiple cases like this throughout the book.

Structure and architecture

The book is full of images of the Cammy’s family after her death. It is made to seem like a normal family nothing strange apart from momentary glimpses of grief. The families grief and sadness become more prominent the further the reader gets through the book. These photos are split into groups with inserts and old family photos between each section. This book is designed and structured to shock, upset and make its audience think.

Narrative

The narrative that has explained before in previous blog posts is about the aftermath of a young woman’s death after a long battle with bulimia. The name of the victim is Mary Cameron Robinson, known as ‘Cammy’ to her friends and often referenced as Cammy in the book. The book explores her family and friends grief, frustration and shock. It is a tribute and a book really emphasizing how real of an issue eating disorders are.

Title

‘The Epilogue’ is a clever title as it causes the reader to question it as it is not a clear title. It also suggests that it is the aftermath of something significant. The Epilogue of a novel is often at the end however,  this whole book is called ‘The Epilogue’. Once the reading this book the title becomes clear as it is the story of a families grief after losing a loved one to an eating disorder. Also before this book the author released two other books of eating disorders the title may also nod to her other projects as it may show the consequences of not taking this illness seriously.

Images and text

The only text that can be found are from diaries, reports, newspaper articles, letters and quotes from the family there is almost nothing directly from artist, which in many cases makes sense as she is not part of that family she is only sharing the story, she is not a part of the story.  Often the images have relation to the text that can be found next to it.