Johanna Rogers ~ California

Secrets
By Johanna Rogers
San Francisco, California: Johanna Rogers, 2005. Edition of 30.

13.25 x 10.25"; 80 pages. Housed in cloth covered clamshell box. Black light included in pocket bound into lid of box. Silkscreen pages. Handbound by artist.

Text is visible only under black light. Having it both ways? Keeping your secret and revealing it too?

DC Scarpelli (San Francisco book artist): "In order to collect the secrets for Secrets, [Johanna] printed postcards inviting friends, acquaintances, coworkers and passers-by to her website...where she had set up an anonymous guestbook-cum-blog. She spread these postcards to the four winds, and the four winds responded. She received a passel of secrets that were really remarkable—as though there were folks out there just waiting for an outlet for their deepest, funniest, saddest moments.

"And then she turned to the physical book. How do you print in invisible ink? The answer, at least according to most of the world, is 'you don't.' Johanna had to invent a process. After some trial and error, she settled upon silkscreen as her printing method and formulated her own archival, untraceable-in-daylight, invisible ink using acrylic matte medium as a base for a pre-existing ink that fluoresces in blacklight.

"Only then did she begin the gargantuan task of formatting the text, building the covers, assembling the paper, silk-screening each page individually, and constructing an edition of large-scale books which are completely blank on first glance, but pour out hidden thoughts when irradiated."

Johanna Rogers: "Secrets began as a result of my unwillingness to write in a pristine and empty book I had just made. Its pages were beautiful in their blankness—leaving pencil marks would violate them.

"How to resolve this conflict? The answer was literally clear: invisible writing! I slept on the thought. By the next morning it was obvious to me that the only content worthy of the book and the concealed ink would be words that could not be said out loud.

"It really amazes me that complete strangers were willing to come to my website and share with me those episodes in their lives they do not (and perhaps would rather not) talk about. I feel extremely honored to have offered the chance for others to expose their sorrows, faux pas, and personal struggles. I hope that there has been some relief in the telling for those who bared their soul."
$2,500