Invitation, M&Co: New York Women in Film Benefit, 1987

Folded in eighths, this invitation to a benefit film screening is comprised of sixteen variously designed panels imprinted in differently combined schemes of black, white and pink.

Panel #1, the recto of the folded object – An illustration of an uncovered lipstick of a bright, light pink shade, extending upward from its black and silver-toned case, is placed diagonally in the center.

Panels #2 and #3 – An imprint of pink-lipsticked, parted lips with visible skin creases appears across the center fold between panels two and three in the upper half. The design simulates lipsticked lips blotted on a tissue or napkin. Making, the first word in the film title, in small black sans serif uppercase type, is imprinted below in the lower half.

Panels #4, #5, #6, and #7 – A reproduction of a black and white photograph tinted a pale pink tone shows an above-the-waist view of a woman scientist posed in a laboratory. The rectangular view is centered, spanning the four panels. The subject, posed with her arms upraised at two different levels, higher on the right, the hands holding a glass test tube, appears to be conducting a scientific experiment. Her eyes, behind large, heavily-rimmed glasses, are focused on the tube’s contents. Her lips are closed, thus accentuating her intensely absorbed facial expression. Her hair, cut short, is styled in long bangs, the tips touching the upper edge of the eyeglasses. She wears a white laboratory coat, buttoned; an open neck, collared shirt, framed by the coat’s revers, is visible above the topmost coat button. Jewelry, consisting of a watch, rings and bracelets, completes her ensemble. The figure is framed top and bottom and on the left by metal laboratory piping, from which several pieces of equipment protrude; additional laboratory equipment completes the view. Below the photograph, Mr. Right, continuing the film title from panels two and three, spans the centerfold.

Panels #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15 – Panels eight, nine, ten and eleven, to the left of the centerfold, are bright pink in background; panels twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, to the right, are black. The copy layout, beginning in panel nine, proceeds to panels eleven, twelve, and fourteen, in that order. On the pink background, the copy is black, and on the black, it is white. If it were outlined, the four-panel copy would assume a more or less rectangular shape. On each side of the centerfold, five lines of type, ending at the horizontal center line, are imprinted in the upper half, and seven lines, beginning just below the horizontal center line, are in the lower half. The centerfold serves as the justified, right-hand margin of the copy to the left of the centerfold and the justified, left-hand margin of the copy to the right. The respective left-hand and right-hand margins are, however, irregular. The copy, providing details of the benefit film event, is accompanied by two illustrations: spanning panels eight and ten, a reproduction of an anatomical drawing of what appears to be the male urogenital tract; spanning panels thirteen and fifteen, a reproduction of a snippet from a film strip.

Panel # 16, the verso of the folded object, is blank.