Education (2008)

The inside book cover is covered with a green, mottled cloth. Glued to the center top of the cover is a small box with a black-and-white photograph of an alpine landscape pasted on top. Within this box is a set of standard-sized playing cards. The Late-Romantic painting, “Pinkie,” by Thomas Lawrence, is pasted to the face of the cards. The inside bottom of the box is a color illustration of garden vegetables. The inside lid of this box is a color-tinted photograph of the American Civil War general, Robert E. Lee. The frame is covered with text from the encyclopedia set from which this book originally came. The central square of the framed area is partitioned off with another frame covered with a blue embossed fabric and mirror on all four inside panels. The background image is a color illustration of a 1940s blue truck driving at night with its headlights on. Placed above and below this center frame are two halves of a rubber fish. In the background of each of these areas are two different film sets as seen from behind the scenes. The bottom panel is a upholstered red couch and the top panel is of a glass chandelier. The side panels of these sections are gold bas-relief, pre-Roman depictions of chariot riders.