“This is the one of those books that is difficult to explain, in the best possible way. […] From its format to its content, this book bends commercial and editorial aproaches to Pustaiová’s own devices with an ingenious, hyper-contemporary flair.” Leslie A.Martin, creative director of Aperture
“The book is like candy, a toy, which you immediately want to hold in your hands and play with. Eat me, eat me now and you will become a princess, or a prince, or someone who will be young forever and beloved by everyone. Playing with very bright colours and constructed images, similar to advertising language, Zuzana Pustaiova asks philosophical questions about our society, about gender norms, about acceptance or refusal, about fitting in or falling out. Can a beautiful image be of a disgust, or can a disgusting image be of a beauty? Why do we create the norms and how can we free ourselves from them? One day without norms could be so much fun, as Pustaiova suggests, so could be every day.“ Maria Kapajeva
“Between the innovative construction of the book itself and the vibrantly energetic content inside, One Day Every Day hits with a jangling thump. Pustaiová’s photographic and conceptual boldness forces us to sit up and pay attention, thereby providing an entryway for her more nuanced ideas about our contemporary existence. The combination leads to a memorably potent photobook, filled with the kind of head-scratching, edge-of-crazy (or brilliant) single images and visual one-liners worth sharing with others.” Loring Knoblauch, Collector Daily
SHORTLISTED | First Photobook Award, Paris Photo / Aperture Photobook Awards 2022 2nd PRIZE | Contemporary Photobook | The best photobooks from Central and Eastern Europe, Month of Photography in Bratislava
The debut by Zuzana Pustaiová titled One Day Every Day (2022) is an ironic commentary on various social norms impacting our daily lives. Commonplace routine, gender stereotypes, and role-playing (depicted in the book literally as ‚wearing masks‘) are few examples of cultural code, which, on the one hand, bind the society together, but on the other, it imposes the often unwanted social pressure affecting an individual’s freedom. In this book, the artist seeks the boundary where the (otherwise useful) behavioral patterns become pathological.
Exploring the intricate relationship between these patterns and broader social phenomena, the book shows deeper layers of institutional limitations conceived by the policy-makers and relayed to the public by the media and via social networks. It brings the reader’s attention to the point that while striving for a better world, one ought not to forget how the individual feels in the realm of all those recommendations, behests and restrictions, imprinted to one’s mind since an early age and while being brought up, only to find that civilizing imperatives often lead to systematic oppression. The idea of rethinking one’s conviction, when it comes to social norms, is further supported by the ‚Leporello‘ layout, allowing for alternative page juxtapositions.
Photographs: Zuzana Pustaiová (2020-2022)
Text: Branislav Štěpánek
Book design: Matúš Lelovský, Zuzana Pustaiová
Print run: 300 + collectors edition of 11
Date of publishing: May 2022
Language: Slovak / English
Number of pages: 62
Number of images: 60
Publisher: self-published with Reflektor
Supported by:
Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava www.vsvu.sk Photon Gallery www.photon.si Reflektor www.reflektor.org Fond výtvarných umení www.fvu.sk Zoltán Szabó www.raftys.sk Supporters of crowdfunding campaign on www.startlab.sk
You can order book by email zuzka.pustaiova@gmail.com.
