Soap story

"This artists's book tells the story of a young woman in Calabria, Italy during the 1950's, whose real life reads like a fairy tale, or a soap opera, in six installments. In order to give lasting form to this oral history, the reader must release the text, silk-screened on linen pages, from six tiny bars of soap, with numbers imprinted with lead type. After hanging to dry, ironing optional, the rags slot into six acid-free pages with oval die-cuts, through which the text remains visible. The pages are bound with a linen rag into a handmade, cloth-covered album, with the title embossed into a raised oval on the front cover. The book is housed in a matching cloth-covered box, lined with rags and sealed with a color-lithographed soap label."--from the soap bars wrapper.