Independent Art and Photography - Teresa Eng's 'Speaking of Scars'

With this project, I am really focusing on the book as an object - one that has to be interacted with to fulfill its purpose. The subject matter is important, but I have known what I wanted to photograph for a long time. Therefore I am directing some more of my research into the construction of books, particularly those with interactive elements such as fold outs. I need to see how the dynamic of the book affects how viewers see the images inside.
The first book I am going to look at is Teresa Eng's 'Speaking of Scars'. Although her subject matter is completely different to mine (aside from the fact that memory concerns both), she has utilised fold outs in her book. Most of the images are printed directly onto each page as with a regular book, but every so often there are images that are overlayed with other photographs, meaning that when you fold it back something else is revealed. Her statement about the project is as follows:

'Speaking of scars’ deals with trauma and memory. During a 3-year period, photography was used to process an experience that couldn’t be processed. In the book memory takes the form of images, as it repeats and reconfigures itself around new and existing experiences.
Despite the fragile nature of the images, the book expresses its brutal subject in a delicate way as it explores the complexity of trauma. The details of banal life offer up a world where things once seemingly benign become menacing; yet beauty holds resonance.
‘Speaking of scars” is an expression of the unspeakable, taking inconceivable events and transforming them into a visible language. (http://teresa-eng.com/?page_id=494)

Here is a video showing how the viewer would progress through the book:

Teresa Eng // Speaking of Scars from haveanicebook on Vimeo.

Eng makes use of lots of different styles of fold outs in this book. The most interesting thing for me is the placement of them - rather that using one image to completely cover another, she places it so that it only conceals a part of the image. This leads the viewer to question the connection between the two images, although we are given no answer because of a lack of text in the main body of the book. Eng also uses repetition, using the same, or very similar images several times. The image of a blind half covering a window is referenced 3 times, twice on opposite sides of a double page spread, and once later on in the book, with thin, translucent paper replacing the window, allowing the viewer to see through to the image on the next page. Again, the viewer is forced to interact with this book, its tactility is one of its fundamental purposes. Its narrative is not completely clear, but perhaps the aim is that interaction with the images will help the viewer to uncover more of the story, by spending more time with the book and not being able to just skim through it quickly.
Although Eng is presenting a variety of subject matter in a wide variety of different ways (full page images, fold outs, small images, double page spreads etc), the book is still kept linked together by a consistent style. This is something I will definitely have to consider when constructing my book - making sure that all images included have similar tones to them and are printed with the same level of contrast.
For me, Eng's book does embrace the tactility of the medium, but all of the pages are still kept as they would be in a regular book. There are fold outs, but they all remain within the boundaries of the edged of the book's cover. In my case, my fold out would extend wide out on either side. Therefore, I feel it is important that I look at some other books that take on similar aesthetics to the ideas I have for mine.