Matchmaking in the Archive is an interesting and well curated collection of essays about how the past informs and deepens our understanding in our present day lives. Released 10th Feb 2023 by the Rutgers University Press, it's 264 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.
This is a very well written collaborative project curated by E.G. Crichton, linking a currently active artist with a dead artist/performer whose artifacts are contained in the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society's archives and which draws parallels between how the relics of past generations relate to modern artists' creative lives and experiences.
It's easy to become overwhelmed, a little bogged down, and completely enraptured by this odd book of pairings. It's both whimsically appealing, melancholy, and quite subtly profound to understand how the author and the guest essayists tease out the common threads and present them to the reader.
Most of the artists were unfamiliar to me. There were a few familiar names, but most weren't. That didn't detract from the read (and might have actually enhanced it). There's a certain amount of voyeuristic pleasure in seeing ephemera from the past and so much history to be gleaned here.
Four stars. Valuable for readers interested in arts, ephemera, culture, LGBTQIA+ history, and allied fields.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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