"Take Care of Yourself" by Sophie Calle

Take Care of yourself is an art project by Sophie Calle, it exists in exhibition form but also in a book form. Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist and conceptual artist.

Although this book has been described as an artist book, I think it's also possible to look at it as a photo book. Not only because (obviously) it has a lot of photos in it, I also think the photos are of great significance for the context of the book.

The book as an object

Size: 30,4 x 21,5 x 4 cm

Materials: Different kinds of paper (matte, glossy) but there's also CD's inside and braille

Binding: Hardcover (printed and bound in Italy by Graphicom)

Pages: 420

Cover: Photo by Jean-Baptiste Mondino

Content and Context

What is it about?

The project “Take Care of Yourself” started with an email that Calle received, telling her it was over. The email ended with the words “Take Care of Yourself” Not knowing how to respond to this, Calle decided to ask 107 women, chosen for their profession or skills, to interpret this letter. To understand it for her. To answer for her. She describes it as a way to take the time to break up, a way to take care of herself.

Why was it made?

After receiving a break up email, Calle is left with a feeling as if it almost hadn't been for her. She doesn't know how to respond. After asking two friends to read the email and react to it, she came to the idea of asking women of all sorts of professions to react to this email. This project was made to make sense of something that didn't make sense at first. Calle is also known for taking something personal out of her life and making it into a (public) art project.

Who made it?

Sophie Calle, French writer, photographer, intallation artist and conceptual artist. Graphic design is by Raphaëlle Pinoncély.

Does the book express an interesting vision on book design?

At first not so much. The book seems quite conventional, as it is in chronological order and could be read as a normal book. However, there are some interesting details. The book starts off with the email in morse code, hexadecimal language and then braille. Within the book are CD's, with varying content such as phone conversations or a meditation session. There are also little booklets. This leads me to the impression that this book can be seen as much more than just a book.

Purpose

I think this book could be made for a wide variation of people. For instance, everyone who has ever been dumped per letter or email or everyone who is into storytelling through photography and art.

Relation and Form

Title

The title of the book is the end of the email that Calle received. "Take Care of Yourself," in the book Calle states that she indeed has taken care of herself, by making this project.

Presentation of photographs on the page

For every woman, there is a story and a picture. As their professions vary, the photographs also vary. The texts that are accompanied with the photo's are also varying for every woman that is mentioned. Every woman is portrayed reading the letter, for example an Ikebana Master (flower arranger) is portrayed behind a set of flowers. Next to this picture is a vase of flowers, both of them taking up a whole page. In between these pages there is a small piece of thin paper (it reminds us of an accompanying card that is often send with flowers). This small piece of paper depicts the opinion on the email of the Ikebana Master.

Image-text relations

As stated above, the texts vary in their form per woman. The poet reacts to the email through poetry, thus the text is presented in a poetic form.

Typography

This is also quite interesting, there is a lot of text in this book and a lot of the texts are in different typographies. It is a very eclectic collection. Some women chose to write, their writings are scanned. The Latinist reacts in Latin, the typography is in a large font, taking up a lot of space. The teenager reacts through a text message, a photo of the text is included. The lawyer states her opinions through different legal papers, the papers are scanned.