Date
1998
Edition Size
25
Media
Silkscreen
Binding
Hand-sewn
Dimensions
15.5 × 11.5 in
Collection
Limited Edition Artists Books$ 2,800.00
Out of Print
View Collectors
San Diego State University (SDSU)
University of Minnesota
Yale University, Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library
Road To Nowhere/Road to Pair O’Dice is the third volume of David Sandlin’s epic eight-part series, A Sinner’s Progress, which illustrates the adventures of protagonist Bill Grimm, Sandlin’s everyman, as he makes his way through a contemporary suburban world characterized by the seven deadly sins. Sandlin makes use of sumptuous visual imagery, original language, and elaborate plot to convey his quirky vision of a modern puritanical America.
“This book amplifies the sense of uncertainty Sandlin established in the first two volumes. The necessity of making a choice is literally designed into the book’s format and substantiates its content. Road to Nowhere/Road to Pair O’Dice is a two-sided construct: read from one end, it follows the story of Bill Grimm, the lustful trucker; when the book is inverted, a parallel story unfolds of his alter-ego, born-again salesman Brother Grimm. Their two tales meet at the book’s centerfold in a virtual Möbius strip of a board game featuring ‘Sin or Sellavation.’ While the reader must choose at the outset which road to take and which protagonist to accompany, the dual journeys yield no clear distinctions. Who is the more ignoble character: the truck driver who stops for a quickie at the Luv Motel and tries to salvage his soul by purchasing ‘sin credits,’ or the hawker of such evangelical snake oils who profits from the sinner’s shame?”
— Dennis Harper, Georgia Museum of Art
Silkscreen on paper and book cloth, two-sided construction, hand-bound. 15.5″ x 11.5.” 39 pages. Edition of 25. 1998.