By Fred Hagstrom
[Albuquerque, New Mexico]: Strong Silent Type Press, 2023. Edition of 22.
13 “x 13.5”; 28 pages. Printed in relief. Ariel Rounded MT Bold Font. Drum leaf binding.{Relief printed free end pages and pastedowns. Relief covers with cloth spine. Signed and numbered by the artist. Sources noted in colophon.
Fred Hagstrom: "’Testing: Book Two Downwinders’ documents the experiences of residents of the Southwest who were exposed to radiation from 126 atomic bombs detonated at the Nevada test site from 1951 to 1963."
Introduction text: “Radiation from the tests affected the workers on the site, service members ordered to observe the tests from trenches, and citizens in neighboring states – the downwinders.”
These tests are prime examples of what has become known as collateral damage - “inadvertent casualties and destruction inflicted on civilians in the course of military operations.”
Text excerpts:“In school they showed us a film called A is for Atom, B is for Bom. I think most of us who grew up in that period, we’ve all in our own minds added C is for cancer D is for Death.”
“The only country that ever bombed our civilians with nuclear weapons was our government. We killed our own. They just assumed we were all cowboys and Indians and a bunch of Mormons out here, and that we didn’t matter.”
“You would grab hold of a sheep to move in into a corral or a little pen, and the hide- the wool, the skin, everything, would just pull right off of them. Just like they had been baked in a microwave.”