ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the tactile performance of memory in artists’ books, such as Maria G. Pisano’s Hecatombe 9-11, Jeannie Meejin Yoon’s Absence, and Robbin Ami Silverberg’s Detritus, that were created to commemorate 9/11 in the US. We suggest calling these artists’ books “book memorials” to open space for a productive consideration of the ethical and political work they do within the public discourses circulating around the September 11 terrorist attacks. Combining frameworks from media studies and performance studies, we examine how the excessive tactility of book memorials perform mourning and the relationship of books as memorials with other kinds of 9/11 memorials. Ultimately, we trace how 9/11 book memorials exceed their ostensible function of commemoration in order to both engage and resist the repeated production of aggrieved subjects complicit in America’s endless wars in the Middle East.
