Art Metropole

#14813

Homophone Dictionary

Writer

Sue Nixon

Editor

Riet Wijnen

Date

2018

Publisher

uh books

Format

Artists' Books

ISBN

9781916249905

Size

13 × 21 cm

Length

424 pp

Genre

Autobiography, Text-Based

Description

Homophone Dictionary was originally a file that is compiled by former schoolteacher Susan Nixon. She has build up many collections throughout her life, almost all of them exist out of objects, except one: after her retirement she compiled a word document that by now exist out of almost 1000 homophones; two, or more words that you pronounce similar but have a different meaning, often the spelling is also different.

The document is structured as a dictionary and the homophones are illustrated with examples that are based on autobiographical information. The structure of Homophone Dictionary also refers to speech therapy exercises and concrete poetry.

“As a student nurse learning medical terminology, I became fascinated with understanding the roots of words. When I had a young family, words were a principal source of entertainment: it was not unusual for one of the children to slip from their chair at the dinner table and fetch a dictionary in order to settle a dispute or satisfy someone’s curiosity. Then I became a teacher and brought this love of words into the classroom. My habit of word collecting became the children’s habit – my pupils became ‘word-lovers’ and ‘list-makers.’

I casually collected homophones for years. When introducing homophones into the classroom, the kids found definitions dull; the typical reaction was, ‘Yes, but give me a sentence using the word!’ and this idea emerged: a book of sentences demonstrating the meanings of homophone pairs or sets.”

“The sentences reflected my own life experiences: my girlhood on a Saskatchewan farm during the Depression; my years as a nurse, parent, and teacher; my college major in geography; and my interest in politics. To supplement these personal topics, there were many calls to family and friends – to my art-historian daughter, my pilot son and nurse daughter-in-law, to my veterinarian son and his business-professor wife, my retired-teacher friend, and my best friend’s fisherman husband. They were bombarded with questions like: How is this word used as a noun? This is a flying word, can you help me out here? Can you give me a sentence that shows how a surgeon would use this? […]”

b/w, with full-colour cover with clear acetate dust-jacket printed in full-colour.
This publication was [intitated by Riet Wijnen, and] realized as part of the Ruisdael- Stipendium [awarded to her in] 2018 and made possible with the financial support of kunstwegen; State of Lower Saxony; Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim; City of Nordhorn; and Mondriaan Fonds.

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