Caroline Harris, 2021
 
Cut-out Bambi is an A6 landscape format bookwork in a limited edition of up to 20 (made on demand).
 
The five folded leaves (20 uncut pages) are printed with poem text and video stills, with deer-shaped cut-outs. The leaves are stitched together into the silver mirror film cover using a Japanese four-hole stab binding. The outer cover shows an inkjet-printed deer silhouette; the inside covers are printed with black-and-white close-up detail of deer hide. 
 
“The front of each poem-page is a still image taken from YouTube videos of deer in the ‘humanised’ landscape of street, car park, house, bathroom. By then physically cutting out the deer with a scalpel, I wanted to bring readers up against the loss of these deer, and draw attention to the possibility that this particular fawn, doe, or stag – the one making viewers of the video smile – could be one that has been killed. 
 
“The bookwork’s folded pages mean that the text of the poem is concealed behind the images, de-centring the textuality. Readers can glimpse a few words and fragments through the gaps – but these words are only visible because the deer aren’t there. 
 
“The poem text is my version of four key ‘scenes’ from the life of Walt Disney’s Bambi, written from notes I took while watching the film for the first time.”—Caroline Harris 
 
148 x 105 mm / 20 uncut pages plus cover