Lost consonants

Question: What do a 38-inch bus, a bulletproof vet, a baking dog and electric sock therapy all have in common?

Answer: They've all featured in the work of Graham Rawle.

Napoleon bandy. Click on the image to see a larger version

Graham Rawle plays with language. He finds words from which you can take away a consonant, only to be left with a different word, like sprout and spout or bust and bus. Put the new word in the context of the original word, and you are left with a sentence that is grammatically correct, but doesn't necessarily make sense. Which is why it must be illustrated!

Sheep cones

I remember discovering "Graham Rawle's "Lost Consonants" in the Weekend Guardian in the 1990s and falling in love with them. I loved the play with words, and I loved the artwork — a collage of pictures cut out of magazines and catalogues. They had dotted lines round about, inviting you to cut them out and keep them in a safe place — which I did. I just don't remember where.

According to an interview on b3ta.com, Rawle was inspired to begin the series after he read a note his girlfriend's flatmate had left on the table:

"If you go out, make sure you close all the windows. I don't want to come home to find buglers in the living room."

Apparently he's now working on a series called "vowel movements".

A bit of eroica

The missing consonants in order of disappearance are: t, s, r, h, r, l and t.

"38-inch bust", "bulletproof vests", "barking dogs", "electric shock therapy", "Napoleon brandy", "sheep clones" and "a bit of erotica".

Images reproduced with kind permission from Graham Rawle. grahamrawle.com