Confidence Man (2018)

The inside front cover is backed with a dark blue patterned wallpaper. Over this background, and covering most of it, is a whole page of a medical illustration of the sinuses in the human head. On the right side of the book, the thin frame is covered with the classified ad section from a 1950s magazine. The framed area is divided into three sections. The center section is backed with a black-and-white photo of two men standing near a cement mixer. There are mirrors on the sides of this compartment. In this section, at the top, are three cylindrical yellow beads, each with a column of collaged text. These beads are mounted on a horizontal shaft which allows one to rotate the beads, aligning the text into a variety of combinations. At the bottom of the main section are three wooden ring game pieces. Each of these rings is plugged with smaller sized wooden checker pieces. These plugs can be removed, revealing three different prime numbers at the bottom of the rings. On the bottom sides of the plugs are sketches of men’s heads from magazine advertisements. The top of this section is a black-and-white photo of two women’s bare thighs and short skirts. On the bottom is a color photo of a city street crowd. The top and bottom sections of the framed area are similarly constructed with a sliding black glass panel that covers half the section at a time. Inside each section is a horizontal rod holding a wooden block tile with a photo of a 1930s convict. These blocks can also slide back and forth. In the background of these two sections are four selections of color illustrations from a children’s book telling the story of a boy and his various social interactions.