Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Why do we sign our names? How can a squiggle both enslave and liberate? Signatures often require a witness-as if the scrawl itself is not enough. What other kinds of beliefs and longings justify our signing practices? Signature addresses these questions as it roams from a roundtable on the Greek island of Syros, to a scene of handwriting analysis conducted in an English pub, from a wedding in Moscow, where guests sign the bride's body, to a San Franciscan tattoo parlor interested in arcane forms. The signature's history encompasses ancient handprints on cave walls, autograph hunters, the branding of slaves, metaphysical poetry, medical malpractice, hip-hop lyrics, legal challenges to electronic signatures, ice cores harvested from Greenland, and tales of forgery and autopens. Part cultural chronicle, part travelogue, Signature pursues the identifying marks made by people, animals, and planetary forces, revealing the stories and fantasies hidden in their signatures. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

30,000-year-old handprints, animal scent, celebrity autographs, air trapped in Antarctic ice, and graffiti tags are all signatures-a seldom explored form of marking that reveals something fundamental about what it means to have a body.

About the Author
Hunter Dukes is Lecturer of English Literature at Tampere University, Finland, and a former Research Fellow at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, UK.

Reviews
This is a true 'essay film' of a book, with multiple associative bridges flying out from its topic, into the air of pure insight. I'm thrilled to add my name to its covers. * Jonathan Lethem, author of The Fortress of Solitude *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501353345
Author Dr. Hunter Dukes
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Weight(grams) 176g