The
Hero Book (3rd edition)
an
illustrated memoir
by
Scott Waters
64
pages (24 of them in colour)
32
b&w + colour images
isbn
0-9733499-7-2
now
available at conundrum
press
"The
Hero Book is a striking work that defies easy categorization:
a hybrid of art and text."
Montreal Review of Books mRb
Spring 2007.
read
press release: Oct
24, 2006;
|
 The
Montréal book launch
/ exhibit of The Hero Book and
the housewarming / fund-raising shindig
in Cumulus' new offices was
great! We managed to raise $440 for local
youth homeless shelter, Le
Refuge des Jeunes. Thanks to everyone who came!
Click
here for The Hero Book in
the media
|
The
Hero Book in the Media:
| media
type |
|
media
name |
date |
language |
| cultural
weekly |
review |
"Scott
Waters Soldiers On" by David Jager in Toronto's Now. |
Mar 30
2008 |
[en] |
| gallery
website |
review |
"Time
Heals All Wounds (Negotiating a Lie, Pt. 2)" at Craig
Scott Gallery |
Mar 2008 |
[en] |
| blog |
review |
"Expozine
Exposes the Antisocial" Homosocial at No Media
Kings |
Mar 4 2007 |
[en] |
| literary
magazine |
review |
Men Behaving
Badly by Angela Carr in the Montreal Review of Books
mRb |
Spring
2007 |
[en] |
| quarterly
magazine |
review |
Matrix
Magazine by Lateef Martin |
Issue 77 |
[en] |
| cultural
weekly |
review |
"More
books to give!" in Montreal's Hour
by Brett Hooton |
Dec 7 2006 |
[en] |
“Google
'hero book' and you will find links to 'memory work', a practice
that began in Africa, notably among mothers living with HIV/AIDS.
Keep surfing and you will learn that the 'hero book' is both a document
and a process, whereby a child, through guidance, tells the story
of their life relative to the conflicts and problems that beset
them.
Scott Waters' has taken this format and, using text, photos, and
painted image, applied it to time spent in the military. The results
are stunning. Waters' prose is matter-of-fact, and stands in contrast
to his meticulously painted images, many of them set against that
mass-produced, knots-and-all surface known as 'plywood'—an
accurate metaphor for what we in the civilian world call 'military
training'.
Reading The Hero Book, I am reminded of the similarities
between children's skipping songs and military marching cadences.
The content differs, but the narrative stays the same.”
—Michael
Turner, author of Hard Core Logo and The
Pornographer's Poem.
|
 Scott
Waters once had to choose between art school and
the infantry. He chose the latter, then the former. He now spends
his time painting, drawing and making little books about a life
he thought he hated. Having been recently chosen for the Canadian
Forces Artist Program (CFAP)
he will, accordingly, use his past to help edge the world towards
selfawareness. Scott lives in Toronto and has recently found a
family.
|
“Perhaps
this is all I need to show you. Everything I’ve tried to
drag across this chasm of time can be distilled down to a hairless
torso, a farmer’s tan and a GPMG.”
|
 Now’s
your moment
Floating in the blue lagoon
Boy, you better do it soon
No time would be better
“What
a great fucking movie,” I often thought to myself back in
the winter of 1990. So did the guys I was stationed with.
We knew the
songs and dialogue by heart and knocked back beer, vodka or sometimes
rubbing alcohol and would pause the scene where Ariel ascends,
in her now human form, to the world above. After a few hours of
drinking we would head down the hall to the communal showers to
get cleaned up for the prairie girls who would later be in the
bars, as drunk and desperate as we were.
First though, we would wash our hair and lather our bodies. Taking
our drinks with us, the soundtrack tape would be turned up loud
enough to echo around the shower walls and through the steam.
I would sing along with Dacon and Prevachal and swill Black Label
and we would sometimes pee on each other.
Darling
it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me
|
