Victims
2003
Book, 20.5 x 13.5 cm, 180 p., language : English, publisher : ITNA Press, ISBN : 978-0-9912196-5-0.
Materials: ink, paper
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/91).
Literary synopsis
In a barren field in the fictional town of Monkhole, Herbert stands watch over the cows—his sole form of amusement—daydreaming of his mother, who’s disappeared with a UFO cult, the Overcomers. Meanwhile, his friend Howard works obsessively on a tome about victimology. It may be up to their friend Ruphis to unravel the mystery of the Overcomers, Herbert’s battle against gravity, Howard’s against the great white wall and the nature of those mysterious lights hovering in the clouds. Travis Jeppesen’s debut novel, first published in 2003, set literary culture off balance by giving voice to the demented lifestyle of cultists. With a new foreword by Kevin Killian, Victims returns to reanimate these spectral figures, as well as the forces and forms hidden in their shadows.
Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice
Writing constitutes the foundation of Jeppesen's art practice. In many ways, Victims is the foundation of that, as it was his first published novel. Subsequently, he did make works that have been shown in galleries, but the artist considers that these instances of writing/publishing 'in the expanded field' are still writing, not visual art – if such categories really matter in the end.
Authorship: Artist Author.
Creative Strategy: No Link to Artworks.
Genre: Absurdist, Analytic fiction, Comedy, Gothic, Invented Language, Mystery.
Publishing: Publishing House.
Theme: Absence, Afterlife, American Culture , Childhood, Conspiracy, Control, Death, Everyday Life, Family Secrets, Fleeing, Freedom, Friendship, Landscape, Language, Memory, Mysticism, Myth, Navigation, Perception, Religion, Rituals, Secret Societies.
