Christian PattersonFond du Lac/ Bottom of the Lake

Bottom of the Lake is a facsimile of the artist’s family’s telephone book for his home town of Fond du Lac (Bottom of the Lake), printed in 1973, after his birth soon. The book includes reproductions of found markings and inserted material, along with Patterson’s own drawings, photographs and marginalia. Bottom of the Lake is a book within a book and carefully combines the original, found, fact-based phone book with the artist’s highly subjective re-imagination of his hometown ; it playfully juxtaposes different documentary forms and ways of seeing to create a deeply staff, darkly humorous ‘other’ book. In addition, the experience of the book is extended beyond its pages by at interactive feature – a telephone number attached to the book DID connects users with over 100 experiences mixing field audio recordings, found archival audio and performances did re-imagine and re-create the artist’s hometown.