April 1 is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April Fools’ Day is also the perfect day to eat your words at one of the world-wide hostings of the International Edible Book Festival. This special day is celebrated far and wide, from A to Z: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, United States of America, Romania, Russia, Singapore, and Sweden.
This global event is open to participation by everyone. Individual hostings are held and shared remotely via the World Wide Web on or near the infamous date of April 1, allowing everyone to preserve and discover all kinds of thematic and unique book-ish and book-like tidbits. It is a commentary on contemporary society’s insatiable hunger for and ingestion of culture, but also in a shared way to acknowledge our attachment to food as well as our cultural differences.
The rules of play are simple:
1. The event must be held on or close to April 1st;
2. All edible books must be “bookish” through the integration of text, literary inspiration, or the actual book structure or form;
3. Organizations or individual participants must send a link to their photo album, or upload pictures on Facebook so each individual event is immortalized on the web for all to enjoy.
The CBPA celebrated their 13th Annual International Edible Book Festival in the Columbia College Chicago Library this past April 3, under the 2012 theme ‘Zines, Comics and Graphic Novels.
Special kudos go to second year Book and Paper MFA Claire Sammons, for winning in the “Best Visual Pun” category for Toast World, her interpretation of Ghost World.
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The “Most Book-Like” category was captured by a team effort of Greta Bach, Jamie Weaver, and Jessica Wagner (all Book and Paper first-year MFAs) for their entry B.B. The BadAss Bookbinder.
