Desk in Room 1219
1968
notebook page with Polaroid Type 20 instant prints
Set against a deep blue wall a square plexiglass case displays two wall mounted items from the collection of Cohen’s personal journals displayed in this area of the exhibition labeled “Tennessee 1968”. On the left, at standing-height eye level, is a page from a tall and narrow lined notebook with five palm sized black and white polaroid photos stuck in it. Next to this on the right is a typed sheet of paper with a block of text on the top half.
The journal page will be described followed by a reading of the typed text.
The page is a scrapbook style collection of images. The top two are white bordered polaroids which fill half the width of the page in landscape orientation. From the top down they feature a writing desk with, at centre, the notebook this page is from which is topped by a book, some small pads of paper and a handgun. Also on the desk from left to right is a black rotary dial phone, a roll of double sided tape in a clear dispenser. A water glass with a handful of pens, a bottle of glue, and reading materials including a copy of “The Ladder of Lust” which is a thin book with a painting of a man looking at an undressed woman on the cover. Below this among other less discernible objects are a pack of Camel cigarettes and a wrapped piece of Double Bubble chewing gum. The next polaroid is a snapshot of handguns in a shiny display case. Next is a portrait orientation photo of 34 year old Leonard Cohen with his body position indicating it was taken as a selfie. He gazes at the camera with a look of concentration presumably from the effort of taking the picture. Leonard is a clean shaven white man with straight short dark hair. He wears a light dark coloured coat over a black suit with a white shirt and black tie. On the lower part of the page beside these are: a picture of four white handled guns in a display case which also displays some knives and a photo of the view of traffic out of the back seat of a car. This photo has a five pointed gold star stuck to the top left corner.
Beside the first two photos are notes. Handwritten in black script with the exception of some capital letters which are in printing is the following text:
Desk in room 1219
Noel hotel
Photo secured by
Scotch double stick tape
Sticky on both sides
And
Row of revolvers as described
December 18, 1968.
Cohen on Guns
1968
typed page
Moving to the typed paper displayed alongside the journal page: The paper has yellowed slightly by time and the darkness of the letters of the text is slightly irregular as were the products of manual typewriters of the day. The handwritten number 88 is in the top right corner.
The typed text reads:
Nashville
December 20, 1968
My heart leaped up when I beheld the glass counter
With its magic row of revolvers in the Woodbine
Army Surplus Store. My eyes devoured the precious
machinery. I had to keep myself from laughing
out in joy. To be so close!
Magic moves from poem to gun.
I came close to loving the automobile but I never
quite succeeded. Watches and clocks have their
fascination but I am so uninvolved in the jewels
and the wheels. It is like watching fish in a
bowl, one cannot interfere, only behold. The
artifacts in museums interested me by the mere
accident of their survival. I never loved a shard
or a painting. I’ve walked through factories,
rebuking myself for my indifference, straining to
be a modern man who at least respects his utensils,
stifling a yawn. But these guns, I loved them
as my eye fell upon them, as one loves beautiful
women. I bought the tear gas pen, dreaming.
Exhibition label text:
Cohen collected a variety of pistols and rifles during his life, and guns appear often in his music, art, and writing. The first gun that attracted him was his father’s WW1 service pistol. In Nashville, one of his favourite places to visit was the Woodbine Army Surplus Store, where two of the photographs on this page were made. Elsewhere in this notebook, Cohen recorded his response to seeing the guns on display. Later he typed out the original hand- written diary entry, which underscores the extent of his fascination with the subject.
Cohen once remarked quote “I don’t hunt, I like target practice. I kind of fell into [ editors note: gun ownership] because I was interested in becoming a cowboy at one time.... When I lived in Nashville, I had a lot of admiration for these guys I saw around. They were very attractive. I liked the way they spoke...a lot of them carried a gun or had rifles in the back of their trucks. That’s when I started getting interested in firearms.” end quote.