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 Click for words events Let them eat Twain Reading the scene at the Edible Book Show
A hungry anticipation hangs in the air. On every table, signs say
"Please Do Not Eat Book Until 7pm."
The attendees make their way around the tables at the Columbia
College library, stopping and staring, reaching out but not touching the
savory works of art. Good books may be hard to come by, but good-tasting
books are generally unheard of, unless you like the taste of paper. This
is not the case at the 4th Annual Edible Book Show & Tea co-sponsored by
Columbia's Center for Book and Paper Arts.
The literary eats are prepared by artisan chefs from all around the
world, who cleverly make culinary the canon, from "Soytanic Verses" to
"Dante's Inferno," a concoction of jalapeno cornbread layered with
spicy dips. A few tables down, "Seafood," a book comprised of pages of
dried seaweed bound between two dried fish and two dried squid fanning
out of the bottom, is aesthetically fascinating but, alas, the smell.
The time draws near. People rub their hands together in excitement. A
mass consumption follows of all that has been read, viewed and admired
over the past hour. There is a guilty pleasure in the destruction of
art, in the consumption of books. Plates and forks are handed out and
everyone goes to what seems to be their favorite. Cake is cut into,
tortillas are dipped, bread is sliced, and meat is carved. Artist Lisa
Mendez, who made the quickly devoured sculpture "Book Suey," a book of
grilled beef and pork bound by linen, says, "That's like half my goal,
it had to taste really good, too."
Also by Christine Badger No sleep 'til Claymation
Wood is no good
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