M HKA Ensembles

Artist Novel, 22.4 x 15 cm, 384 p., language : English, publisher : Chatto & Windus, ISBN : 978-1784741488.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2029/575).

Literary synopsis

Overland is a novel set in Burbank, California in 1942 based on the true story of how the US Army commissioned Hollywood set designers and builders to fabricate an entire town on top of the Lockheed Aircraft plant, blending it into the surrounding area as a way to camouflage it from potential Japanese aerial attack. The story looks at the correlation between techniques used in US Army industrial camouflage and 1940s Hollywood set design. In it, Art Director George Godfrey sets about creating a perfect suburban town of increasingly surreal and magical splendour, a haven for its Residents. The novel also explores subjects pertinent to the period, such as Japanese-American civilian internment camps and the role of women working in munitions factories. The themes of heaven and hell are reflected in the layout and design, where the book is read horizontally and parallel narratives run above and below the gutter, switching from the utopian world of Overland to the dark underworld of industry and war.

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