Smoke

Smoke is a book project about my grandfather, Aubrey Thomas, who died from lung cancer in 1992. He was the first person I ever loved that died. I originally wrote the text for Smoke during a contemporary short fiction class in Fall 2006, attempting to emulate Barthelme. The short story is broken into several shorter passages, each with its own title, that represent different memories of my grandfather.

After two years of playing with various book structures, I realized that Smoke was not meant to be read as a traditional book. Its true form is as a pack of Salem cigarettes, the preferred brand by my grandfather. Each cigarette scroll contains one short passage, such as A Place, An Event, or An Early Memory. All cigarettes, including a colophon cigarette, are cased together in a hand-crafted cigarette pack made of binder's board with letterpress printed graphics.

I printed this project in Gordo, Alabama, thanks to Glenn House's and Kathy Fetters' generous offer of studio space.

Edition size is three cartons of cigarettes (or 30 copies)
$195