'Necessary Disclosures'

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Mausumi Bhattacharyya
Centre for Journalism &Mass Communication (CJMC)
Visva-Bharati
Santiniketan, WB, India

Oh OHIO !! It has been an incredible journey so far. Have settled down in this beautiful county of Ohio, Athens. Extremely jet lagged but thoroughly excited, bit hesitant and tremendously curious  - explains my state of mind, when I met the SUSI Program Director. Professor Yusuf Kalyango himself at the Colombus-Ohio airport. The warm welcome by him and his wonderful team made me feel at home immediately. Three weeks have flown past till then. Going through an experience of life-time – spectacular campus, my amazing SUSI colleagues and exchange of ideas with them, visiting wonderful places, gathering loads of information and oh, last but not the least , my two friends with whom I am sharing the apartment – calm and quiet Amel from Sudan and cute, naughty Signe from Estonia, always bubbling with energy!

I thought I have seen the best, but wait, what I saw in the collection of the Alden Library of Ohio University, literally bowled me over. An amazing employee of  the library showed us the ‘Treasure House’ and explained in details regarding the library resources. Being the book-worm I am and a cricket buff ( like any other true Indian), I got glued to a ball like structure in the archive. A ball-shaped, purple-coloured, paper-made stuff, which was kept in a square glass box. The kind lady, in charge of same explained to me what it was and I got perplexed! It was a book!! Yes, a book!

'Necessary Disclosures' kept in a square glass box

The 'ball' book !!

The title is 'Necessary Disclosures'. Author is Sarah Peters. The book has been published by Women’s Studio Workshop in 2003. It's a 3.5*3.5*3.5 inches spherical book made with letterpress on cast cloth. It is attached with book cloth and hook-and-loop fastener and when it gets opened, one can see six nested pages of text. The book is about the relationship of our way of interpersonal interactions with the way we interact as an institution. Sarah Peters has raised questions in relation to our 'private' and 'public' behaviours and also showed connections between our private life with the global arena.

Nested pages of the 'wonder book'

‘Necessary Disclosures’ is a great example of creativity at its best! Both in terms of content as well as the design.

I am grateful to my SUSI journey for experiencing such a wonderful book! Waiting eagerly to share the info with my students and scholars back in India.