Mme Calle wasn’t finished. She called in favours from famous actresses and recorded their comments on camera. She had the letter encrypted as a crossword by a cruciverbalist. She had it evaluated for religious content by a pair of Talmudic scholars. She even persuaded a female marksman to pin the letter to a target in a firing range and shred it with rounds from a high-calibre sniper’s rifle.

All in all, Sophie Calle shared her ignominious e-mail with 107 female professionals. She put the results – photos, blow-ups of the letter, videotapes – on the walls of the French pavilion of the Venice Biennale this summer in a spectacular art installation called (c’est si bon) Take Care of Yourself.

The result? Laughter. Peals and peals of cathartic, healing laughter. Mme Calle’s installation broke up the spectators at the Venice Biennale this summer. It exposed her ex-beau as a none-too-bright, unprincipled sleazeball of the first water and showed Mme Calle to be one very witty, resilient artist.

Who unquestionably knows how to take care of herself.

Arthur Black has been nominated for and received just about every award available in Canada for writing, humour and journalism.

© Copyright September 2007 CARP Magazine