RHYTHM GANGWAR

For Every Gesture Made in Private

A Dictionary of Contemporary Superstitions

A pocket-sized artist’s book of thirty entries, collecting the gestures themselves.

A Dictionary of Contemporary Superstitions, a pocket-sized artist’s book of thirty entries, collects the gestures themselves, each traced from superstition to geography to origin.

The dictionary ends on a line that holds for the whole project: It is not a complete record. It is a beginning.

The dictionary’s cover: a red keyline border around the entry “Ss — superstition (noun): the thing you do not believe in that you do anyway.”

Spreads

The dictionary’s preface spread, ending on the line “It asks instead what superstition is for.”
“A note on structure” — the four-part anatomy every entry follows: word, geography and origin, the superstition as practised and the emotional need it serves, and etymology.
Entry spread for “Anchor”, with its etymology set in red italic and a line drawing of an anchor facing it.
Entry spread for “Black Cat”, with a line drawing of a cat in warm ochre facing the entry.