Beth Cook's latest work adroitly titled "It's not you, it's me", is more a professional research paper into the minutiae of Beth's life than it is a standard art show. With many artists using their own lives as the muse and working directly with personal experience rather than a fictitious character, often times art exhibits in this vain can begin to feel more like reality television shows rather than something worth leaving the couch for. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case in Cook's work.

From 3-D models of houses representing various stages in her life (High school, College, the Graduate years...), to solar system maps of personal spiritual growth, to a "Hamburger Theory of Love" (where Mayo= Supportive, Meat = Emotionally Available, and of course, the Bun= Physically Attractive), Cook's work speaks to the romantic scientist in all of us. Charts, graphs, models, and dotted lines galore fill the walls, along with tiny witty captions detailing her intimate relationships (and yes, she does name names as well as duration and sexual satisfaction, the only thing missing is size).

My favorite piece of the show was one which she did with her current boyfriend, Tom Roberts, in which she had them both write letters to each other describing their experience of first meeting one another. They proof-read each other’s letter for errors and inconsistencies (in red pen), then sent them back to the other person for a final proofing, and lastly hung them side by side for inspection of incongruities. The results were hilariously intriguing with Cook claiming that Roberts description of her shirt with straps was dubious at best and Roberts’ stringently correcting Cook’s grammar. The same evening seen through two different sets of eyes, becomes two evenings unto themselves, even between two close lovers.

“It’s not you, it’s me” brings out the voyeur in the audience. It makes the viewer’s jaw hang slack as they try and decipher whether “Ignacy” gave Beth “Traumatic” sex or if it was just “Passionate, Sex with Friendship”. It impels the onlooker to read small text (which is a feat in and of itself in this day and age of sound bites and headline summaries) and engages the deductive lecher in us all. The one question left burning in my brain afterwards was; Is it possible to abandon yourself completely to the moment when you are taking notes the whole time? (or think the other person is….)

Beth Cook showed for one week (August 24-27, 2006) at Triple Base Gallery (24th & Treat) as part of their new series called "Out of the Flat Files".
http://www.basebasebase.com/