In 2014, Marisa J. Futernick drove nearly ten thousand miles across America, visiting all thirteen of the country’s Presidential libraries along the way. 13 Presidents is the result: an artist’s book that combines photographs from the journey with a suite of short stories. Mixing fact and fiction, each President from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush is a protagonist in this collection of unexpected portraits.

The photographs, shot on analogue film, depict the everyday details of the towns that these men are from, including the homes where they were born, and their final resting places. 13 Presidents weaves together personal narrative with wider cultural observation, forming a vision of America that is both invented and true.

Marisa J. Futernick is an artist and writer based in London. She was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Futernick has published several books, including How I Taught Umberto Eco to Love the Bomb (RA Editions and California Fever Press, 2015) and The Watergate Complex (Rice + Toye, 2015). She has exhibited widely, at venues including the Whitechapel Gallery, London; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Jerwood Space, London; Arnolfini, Bristol, England; and Yale University.

Steve Kado is an artist, writer and musician from North York. Works and performances of his have been seen at places like The Wattis, 8-11, Tate Britain, YEARS and REDCAT. He co-hosts the Talking Show on KCHUNG radio with Nicolas Miller and is the Editor-at-large for Prism of Reality. Other writing of his has appeared in Artforum, Flash Art and a piece about his visit to the Nixon Library was recently published in Night Papers. He is in the band LEAD.

13 Presidents is published by Slimvolume in September 2016.