★ Winner of the Svensk Bokkonst, Swedish Book Art Award 2021 ★ Shelf Life explores the spatial and social landscape in and around that hallowed ground of American consumption, the Supermarket. The average North American supermarket is 40,000 square feet (12,100 m²), roughly the size of a football field or an acre of land.
The commodified space we enter to partake in this final destination of industrial food production is designed to generate maximum ‘cart value’ or expenditure. The over-produced food products bear little resemblance to the land, labor, plant forms or animals from which they were extracted.
In addition to a photographic sequence, a poem unfolds a personal narrative of resistance navigating a Mega Mart, lit up like a stadium, to purchase just a couple of items. A mock Industry Marketing Report reveals proven strategies to make us always buy more.
Published as a limited-edition photo-zine, Shelf Life’s printing style replicates a supermarket discount catalog.
Shelf Life
Drew Waters
self published, June 2021, Berkeley, CA
76 pages , 57 photographs, poem, text
design: Bedow
12.5 x 14.5 inches
edition of 500
Saddle stitched UV gloss cover
Untrimmed newspaper stock
4 pages inlay text
ISBN: 978-0-578-72763-9
$25.00 USD
To purchase in the US go here.
For international purchase and shipping contact: drewwaters@gmail.com