One Day Every Day – Zuzana Pustaiová

The debut by Zuzana PUSTAIOVÁ, entitled 'One Day Every Day' is an ironic commentary on various social norms impacting our daily lives. Commonplace routine, gender stereotypes, and role-playing (depicted in the book literally as ‚wearing masks‘) are a few examples of cultural code, which, on the one hand, bind the society together, but on the other, it imposes the often unwanted social pressure affecting an individual’s freedom. In this book the Slovak artist seeks the boundary where the (otherwise useful) behavioral patterns become pathological.

Exploring the intricate relationship between these patterns and broader social phenomena, the book shows deeper layers of institutional limitations conceived by the policy-makers and relayed to the public by the media and via social networks. It brings the reader’s attention to the point that while striving for a better world, one ought not to forget how the individual feels in the realm of all those recommendations, behests and restrictions, imprinted to one’s mind since an early age and while being brought up, only to find that civilizing imperatives often lead to systematic oppression. The idea of rethinking one’s conviction, when it comes to social norms, is further supported by the ‚Leporello‘ layout, allowing for alternative page juxtapositions.

The bilingual text (Slovak / English) is written by Branislav Štěpánek and the book design is made by Matúš LELOVSKÝ & Zuzana PUSTAIOVÁ. It comes in a print run of 300 copies.