Working Together

a print in aquas of a woman and a beagle kindly talking and listening to each other at a table with coffee drinks

a print in pink and red of a gazelle and a lion marching with linked arms. the lion holds a sign with a raised fist/paw, the gazelle holds a sign with an pink upside down triangle. behind them are women shouting and holding protest signs.

a print in reddish brown with of an unhappy woman working on a laptop while a cat drinks a beer and with a skateboard underfoot

a print in browns of an angry turtle and porcupine facing off. the turtle is weilding a bat behind its back and a security camera in the other arm. The porcupine is wearing a helmet and holding a crowbar.

a print in orange and red of two women doing yoga and levitating.

a print in ochre and red-brown of a girl running while a fellow runner/bald eagle knocks the cup from her hand.

a print in yellow and green of an owl and squirrel warmly smiling while collaboratively making smores over a campfire

a print in bright greens of a circus performer and a seal bowing in respect to each other with prayer hands. in the background a seal looks up on a beach

a print in dark greens of a skeleton and a man. The man is talking and a speech bubble is so large as to be crowding the image. The man is also sitting on the skelton's leg in an unnatural angle.

a print in light blue and purple of a monkey wearing a fez frivolously dancing while a disgruntled woman sweeps up pieces of a ball that the monkey has dropped.

a print in yellow and red of a panda and a woman happily collaborating on a sewing project. The panda is sewing while the smiling woman holds up a drawing of a color block shirt similar to the one she is wearing. She has buns in her hair that look like the panda's ears.

a print in lavendar and blue of a rabbit playing guitar with an African American woman playing bass.

a print in purple-greys of a man wearing a shirt and tie, sitting on a dog, with a knife in one hand, while leading a smiling, blindfolded pig off of a cliff

a print in pink and blue of a woman with white hair and glasses happily collaborating on a drawing of a house like a blueprint with a french bulldog.

Mixed and matched pages (Listening, Equal Empowerment, Being Warmed By the Same Fire)

Mixed and matched pages (Steamrolling, Shared Growth, Subjugation and Obedience)

Working Together: a mix-and-match book of nice and not-so-nice modes of collaboration features 14 prints. By turning the pages, the reader creates new combinations of how the two characters work together.

Working Together is inspired by examining and practicing collaboration, as well as political displays of disregard for others. Though mix-and-match books are typically for children—the same phase of learning good manners—I made Working Together to acknowledge overlapping modes in working relationships. Rather than a skill mastered in childhood, I think of cooperation as a series of ongoing choices.

Working Together is also a suite of standalone prints.

Book: Christine Wong Yap, Working Together, 2017, letterpress-printed linoleum prints and handset type, 8.5 x 7 x 0.5 inches, edition of 15.

Prints: Christine Wong Yap, [titles in ligtbox], 2017, letterpress-printed linoleum prints, 8.5 x 7 inches each, edition of 15.

Printed and bound by the artist at the Center for Book Arts with support from a Workspace Artist-in-Residence Grant.

The project was exhibited in the Workspace Artist-in-Residence exhibition at the Center for Book Arts, April 21–June 30, 2017.

Thanks to CBA instructors Nancy Loeber, Rich O’Russa, Celine Lombardi, Roni Gross, and Amber McMillan; community members Uriel Cidor, Ana Paula Sobral Cordeiro, Sarah Nicholls, Scholars Beth Sheehan, Shana Agid, and Amber Heaton; and staff Anne Muntges, Alex Campos, and Emilie Ahern. Thanks also to T.C. and Elizabeth Travelslight for words of inspiration.