Hot Air Sincerely

The artist book "Hot Air Sincerely" features detailed photographic images of 156 embroidered linen text panels. Each page presents a single line of text. The phrases are based on common clichés, vernacular sayings, books, excerpts from theoretical essays, song lyrics, and other sources of found commentary, as well as Estep¿s own words. The text panels are arranged to create a loose through line as you read them, and are grouped thematically. For example, the subject matter shifts from questions about knowledge and reading: ¿You are what you read,¿ ¿The more you read the more you know,¿ ¿You¿re like a dirty French novel¿ to a host of phrases that conflate and compress the body with words: ¿Written on the body,¿ ¿Speak your mind,¿ ¿Tongue in cheek,¿ ¿It¿s on the tip of my tongue.¿ They include sayings that describe the physical assault of language: ¿You aim your mouth like you¿re aiming a gun,¿ ¿You blow me away,¿ ¿A blow-by-blow description,¿ ¿Words wreak havoc¿ to nonsense speak: ¿Glossolalia,¿ ¿Babel, babble,¿ ¿Twiddle, twaddle, twitter, tweeter, twang.¿ It begins with ¿Hot air,¿ and ends ¿Sincerely.¿ Altogether, the series troubles the relationship between seeing and knowing while foregrounding our daily engagement with language. The 156 text panels originally exist as a multi-panel wall installation; hand-embroidered linen stretched on wood frames, each 11¿ x 11¿.Estep, Jan is the author of 'Hot Air Sincerely', published 2007 under ISBN 9780980176407 and ISBN 0980176409.