Uncovering the postcolonial implications of Yangbin Park's The Cover Story

This thesis examines the multifaceted work, The Cover Story (2012), by South Korean contemporary artist, Yangbin Park. Park uses various printmaking techniques to create versions of different book covers, removing or obscuring images from the original book covers and using the titles to create layered messages. The resulting work consists of twelve book covers, made to be uniform in size that fit together on the floor or against a wall. Using postcolonial methodology and text and image analysis, this study explores the depth of postcolonial meaning of the book covers and the story Park authored that accompanies them. Park’s use of printmaking and choice of books as his subject facilitate a discussion about the means, institutions, and cultural imperialism involved in the dissemination of information. Issues of erasure, visibility, difference, institutional critique, and hierarchies of information and text are all uncovered in Park’s The Cover Story.