-Bob Black, The Abolition of Work, 1985

In researching for Specific Feeling: WORK we found inspiration in Ernest Riebe’s Mr. Block comics, originally published in The Industrial Worker, the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). As a worker, Mr. Block is an anti-union, boss-loving blockhead. 

For WORK, we adopted the Mr. Block persona and photographed scenarios in which Mr. Block works earnestly but not always happily or successfully. The Mr. Block photos are then placed in conversation with found images and text that together illuminate the alienating, demoralizing, and absurd nature of work. By binding the book with a single screw and printing certain phrases and images on vellum, the reader can mix and match what pages to look at side by side, over & under each other, and in the order of their choosing. Our hope is that the book is humorous, validating, and invites critical reflection on feelings and relationships to work.