All Human Beings by Karapanagiotidis, Kon - 2019

Sydney, Australia: Ant Press, 2019. Oppen, Monica. 16mo. (44)pp. One of six copies, signed by the artist, Monica Oppen. Oppen's photographs depict the clamor of Sydney's Central Station, showing all manner of bodies, movements, and faces turned away. In presenting a stream of figures all in a state of transience, all moving from where they are to somewhere they wish to be, Oppen visualizes the universality, and unity, of migration. Her pictorial message underscores text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Power of Hope by Kon Karapanagiotidis, excerpts from which punctuate the book. Both sources call for compassionate borders, for the recognition of ourselves as, more often than not, one-time arrivals from somewhere else. Karapanagiotidis is the founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Center in Melbourne, and the book's final page states that money from initial sales of the edition will be donated to that organization. Bound in full gray cloth with pieces from a world map jigsaw puzzle affixed to both covers. Housed in a clamshell box lined with map sections. Each box and cover of the edition is unique. Fine.