"Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence" by Nick Bantock (1991)


"I crave an art that passionately transcends the mundane instead of being a device for self-deception." - Griffin Moss

"Griffin & Sabine" is an epistolary book, holding the postcards and letters between Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem. Sabine initiates the correspondence with a familiarity that doesn't seem shocking until it is revealed that Griffin has no idea who she is. From there, the story becomes brilliantly clairvoyant, adding touches of romance beyond the physical, yet, very *metaphysical* indeed. 

The book itself is interactive. The artwork is note-worthy, being both surrealist and avant-garde, making "Griffin & Sabine" deserving of multiple readings. Some pages have envelopes, and the reader is welcomed into opening those envelopes and pulling out the letters, both typed and handwritten, within. This tactile experience is fundamental to reading the book, adding an exciting element of voyeurism to its textuality. 

Perhaps "Griffin & Sabine" is an even more potent book for us now (compared to when it was published back in 1991), in this time of almost constant use of the internet. Because the book is fundamentally about telepathy, I find it quite fascinating to read today, when our thoughts are not always consumed by lived experience, but by signs and symbols from the digital world as well. 

The literary content in "Griffin & Sabine"is wonderful, refreshing, sincere, and oddly direct - there is nothing overdramatic here - in fact, this is what makes the content so good. It is straight-forward and accepting in a way that absorbs and then transcends the banal; which explains a lot of the artwork, I think. There is no shortage of quotables here. I've read it only once, but was very touched by the care and ingenuity of its maker.

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