"Now we arrive at the part that I have not yet seen, the part that was concealed inside the object. Let's look at each image carefully, as if we were confronting a newly discovered work of art."
Somehow what had been her commission had been taken by the men in her life. Assuming her role of art school faculty, was, she thought, a way of diminishing the male control of her brother and her boyfriend -- as well as a way of blunting the fear of what Mackie Alarie had planted in this hidden section of the now sinister-seeming book object.
Folding up the other unseen squares, she focused on the first image. It was a black and white xeroxed photo of a bank-situated ATM machine -- from which emerged a printout, which in small print faintly registered a very low bank balance.
"The reality of an artist's life is clearly revealed in this image," she observed.
