Non-mailable Matter, collaboration with Line Up, 2007
"The Book of Stamps" published by Cabinet Books, New York

Ranging from the beautiful to the grotesque to the absurd, the images depicted in the stamps contributed by Line Up (a collective comprising Amelia Bauer, Robert de Saint Phalle, Tim Dubitsky, and Tobias Wong) seem to be organized according to no discernible logic. In fact, these Nonmailable Matter stamps depict an incomplete inventory of the occasionally improbable articles that the United States Postal Service USPS prohibits from going through the mail. The list below, excerpted from the catalogue of items and substances restricted by the Aviation Mail Security & Hazardous Materials Programs of the USPS, corresponds with the images on the following page:

Fireworks; Cleaning supplies; Blood; Kittens
Perfume; Scabs; Glue; Butterflies
Magnetized Materials; Fire Extinguishers; Nail Polish; Cement
Mushrooms; Contraceptive Devices; Paint; Diseased Cells
Fruit; Turtles; Fighting Cocks; Explosives

©2003 amelia bauer