Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

JooHee Yoon’s Up Down Inside Out

September 20th, 2019 by jules

“People in glass houses should not throw stones.”
(Click to enlarge)

I always like to see what author-illustrator JooHee Yoon is up to. (Remember when she first visited 7-Imp back in 2011?) Coming to shelves in early October (from Enchanted Lion Books) is Up Down Inside Out, in which Yoon takes a string of idioms and depicts them literally.

During college, I was a Sign Language Interpreting major and studied American Sign Language. In my first set of classes on interpreting, we tackled English idioms and how to interpret them into a visual, gestural language with an entirely different syntactical structure from spoken English. It was idioms idioms idioms for a long time there. So, this book is especially entertaining to me. As you can see in the spreads featured here today, the book includes such aphorisms as “a cat in gloves catches no mice” and “people in glass houses should not throw stones.” There’s also (not pictured here) “a watched pot never boils,” “a pig in satin is still a pig,” “you are what you eat,” and more. It’s the English language at its most playful, making this book a treat for language-lovers (as well as art-lovers). Those learning English as a second language may get a particular kick out of it. (English is terrifically hard to learn, and we all need to laugh about it every now and then.)

(Click to enlarge)

The illustrations, rendered in merely two Pantone spot colors (red and blue), were created via printmaking, drawing, and Yoon’s computer. It is an exquisitely designed book, which also features flaps and die-cuts. There is also an eye-catching gatefold, pictured below.

I find Yoon’s books so refreshingly bold and curious and offbeat. I remember, when Yoon’s Beastly Verse was released (2015), Daisy Fried wrote at the New York Times that children “appreciate the bizarre and off-kilter, and are too often denied it when grown-ups edit for positive messages and sweetness. Hooray for Yoon for countering that.” Amen.

Here below are some more images from the book so that the art can do the talking. (I thank JooHee, who sent the images such that you can see some of the flaps and folds in action.)