EXQUISITE PAIN

EXQUISITE PAIN by Sophie Calle. Thames and Hudson/284 pp./$39.95 (hb).

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This book reminds us that pain, suffering, and unhappincss can be exquisitely beautiful things. Exquisite Pain documents a ninety-two-day

trip Calle made to Japan in late 1984. The book is filled with the images she made during the journey, each with a large red stamp counting down the "Days to Unhappincss," beginning with "92." The book is narrated through the reproduction of letters between Calle and her lover, exposing the final days of a love affair that ended during her travels. The title is embossed in red metallic ink on the book's cover. On the back cover, also in red, is a paragraph narrating the journey that Calle blamed for the demise of the love affair. The red accent is echoed on the edge of the pages, and the gray cloth covered book is finished with a red bookmark. The size (four by eight inches) and format of the book make it pleasing to hold, creating an intimate voyeuristic experience, an effect central in much of Calle's work. The only painful thing about this work is the frustration experienced while trying to comfortably view the photographs, as they are printed across the gutter of this small thick book that, unlike Calle, does not want to fully reveal itself.

KIRBY PILCHER