LOST OBJECTS 2Q2023
By:
June 23, 2023
As HILOBROW readers know, late last year the LA-based art book publisher Hat & Beard Press soft-launched LOST OBJECTS (ed. Josh Glenn and Rob Walker, intro by Debbie Millman), a gorgeous book that evolved from nonfiction narratives and accompanying illustrations first published here at HILOBROW under the aegis of Project:Object.
LOST OBJECTS was officially released to bookstores earlier this year. Here are a couple of 2Q2023 LO updates…
The Hat & Beard Press / Dublab / Invisible Republic podcast Big Table interviewed Rob Walker and yours truly about LOST OBJECTS. We’re grateful to Big Table host and Hat & Beard publisher J.C. Gabel. The episode aired today! Listen to Rob Walker explain [in more or less these exact words]:
There was sort of a secret magic trick going on here. [Before we first collaborated, Josh and I] both, from our very different directions, had come to the conclusion that the value of objects — whether that value is economic or emotional — often came down to the story of the object. We then played with what can you do with fiction around objects [Significant Objects], and nonfiction — autobiography and personal essays — around objects [Project:Object]. We’d flipped around the dynamic — using objects to — I don’t want to say con, but convince — all these great storytellers to tell stories, whether fictional or nonfictional. [For Lost Objects], the question we asked was: What about objects we don’t own any more? What is the power of an object that you’ve lost but can’t shake? I was excited by this idea of Josh’s because it gave us the opportunity to pull the same trick with a bunch of talented artists and illustrators, too.
Here’s a Spotify link to the LOST OBJECTS episode; it’s also available via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and directly from Big Table.
Also! Hat & Beard Press promoted LOST OBJECTS at the Acid-Free art book market and bazaar in Los Angeles on June 16th. They’ll do the same at art book fairs in San Francisco in July, and LA again in August.
LOST OBJECTS is available from online retailers, including Bookshop.org, and (as always — and along with limited-edition LO art prints) directly from Hat & Beard.
“The contributors to this book have imbued a palpable, living soulfulness into the items that have disappeared or were misplaced or given away. Now — here in this book — that love can be discovered all over again.” — Debbie Millman | “This ridiculously entertaining book performs a neat conjuring trick. You will find your own lost objects flying back to you as you read about other people’s dearly departed things. The conceit is ingenious and the beautiful illustrations make each writer’s ‘rosebud’ flare into radiant life again.” — Jenny Offill | “These micro-tales are the best of the short confessional. They leave you with that same wonderful feeling you sometimes get on one of those special nights in the corner of a bar with a few friends.” — Air Mail | “Filled with exotic and eccentric things, this book proves that discarding hoarded items is not always the best way to take existential control of our lives.” — The Daily Heller
A complete list of Lost Objects authors and illustrators, as well as a look back at 2022 LO publicity, events, and excerpts, can be found here.
LOST OBJECTS updates: 2022 | 2023.
ALSO SEE: PROJECT:OBJECT homepage | POLITICAL OBJECTS (1Q2017) | TALISMANIC OBJECTS (2Q2017) | ILLICIT OBJECTS (3Q2017) | LOST OBJECTS vol. 1 (4Q2017) | FLAIR (2Q2018) | FOSSILS (4Q2018) | FETISHES (2Q2019) | LOST OBJECTS vol. 2 (4Q2019) | MOVIE OBJECTS (2Q2020) | SEMIO OBJECTS (2Q2021) | SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS (cross-posted from Significant Objects website). ALSO SEE: SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS website | LOST OBJECTS (Hat & Beard Press, 2022) | SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS collection, ed. Rob Walker and Josh Glenn (Fantagraphics, 2012) | TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY, ed. Josh Glenn (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) | TAKING THINGS SERIOUSLY excerpts.
