I Am Very Beautiful

I Am Very Beautiful Cover





$10

A running theme through much of Butler’s work has been affirmation phrases. She finds in these phrases a scream for things to be otherwise – the wish that if I say so it can be so. If I think I’m ugly I can make myself feel otherwise by repeating the opposite. If I am poor I can convince myself I’m about to become rich just by saying a phrase such as “My positive money thoughts are coming true.” They play into the eternal wish to not be who or where we are. That we can rub our ruby slippers and be elsewhere and otherwise. That the circumstances of our life can be controlled by assuming the correct positive mind set.

This small book uses the phrase “I Am Very Beautiful” to play around with the perversity at the heart of this way of wishful thinking.

28 pages 5.5” x 8.5”
2016
xerox with laser printed cover

I Am Very Beautiful Spread