Something to Put Something on

Book excerpt: SOMETHING TO PUT SOMETHING ON was completed as a mock-up nearly ten years ago: a book posing serious questions concerning art, generously endowed with its maker's celebrated wordly wit, and intended for young readers. Weiner thus commenced a long search for a place to put what he had made - in this case, a publisher who would embrace a work that expands the scope of children's literature as well as the audience for artist books. All hope was nearly lost until one year ago, the mock-up was brought out and dusted off one final time. We at Steidl were delighted to make a place for this work and to undertake the first printed edition. It is appropriately the foundational book, the very impetus, of our Little Steidl program. Though the ideas Weiner contemplates lead back to youthful days, there is no familiar once upon a time to be found on these pages. Neither story book, nor autobiography, nor reference book, SOMETHING TO PUT SOMETHING ON is a questioning book, both forthright and intriguing. Weiner wields his red, orange, and blue letterforms to take up the question of a human being's relationship to objects and teases the reader into looking at a table in an entirely new light.