by Claudia Frenkel
Translation by Raptor-Femme
„Mind the Gap“ by Marie-Christina Latsch (pbl.) was released in july 2013. There have already been some reviews of the book, but I would like to add another, to make this little gem more known.
It contains more than 20 short biographies of well known and less well known queer personalities, like Marlene Dietrich, Harvey Milk or Judith Butler.
After the introduction, which includes a definition of the word ‚queer‘ and the history around it, on 160 pages you will find a mix of short, but detailed biographies with graphics, poems and texts of various authors.
The biographies are two to four pages long, containing quotes and mostly large-sized pictures.
At the end there is a two-page glossary, explaining some queer terminology.
A rather unusual thing about the book is that it doesn’t have page numbers, but dates that start with 1868 and end with the year 2013.
‚Mind the Gap‘, which Marie-Christina Latsch created during her diploma thesis (area of studies in Design) is from the beginning to the end an aesthetically crafted work of art.
I was very impressed by the people who were introduced in the book.
Many of them had a hard life, however, they believed in themselves, challenged norms and lived their lifes beyond any labels or still do.
The text I like most is ‚every girl, every boy‘, which is about imposed gender roles and clichés.
Marie-Christina Latsch made with ‚Mind the Gap‘ a very creative and informative piece, which I want to recommend to every person who is interested in diverse queer lifeworlds.