Zine, Tyler Hauck, hotmilk.org
Have you ever made a profile for yourself on dating websites? Come now, be honest. You must have at least been curious. Tyler Hauck works out his curiosity in this little volume, posing as a 26-year-old woman posting for an ongoing casual relationship. He then compiled the responses along with an interview with an actual woman that posts for ongoing casual relationships and a pie chart demonstrating the demographics behind the Casual Encounters ads on the Boston craigslist. The responses themselves make for the most interesting read. As Tyler puts it: “One can find almost everything [here]: the titillating, the bizarre, the pathetic, the inept, the scary, the disingenuous, the incoherent, the tacky, the downright depressing, the tasteless, and let’s not forget the flat-out insane.” Though I would add: the unintentionally hilarious. These genuine responses are better than any fiction, and, for the voyeur in all of us, offer accidentally intimate glimpses into other people’s lives. Tyler also adds not- quite-snarky comments at the bottom of each of the samples, but they are more distracting than humorous. Ready for Love is a slice of the human psyche, a hastily and casually cut slice — just like its subject matter. (Leanne Wong)