The review of a slim 39-page, pamphlet-like, A5-sized book with the odd image hardly seems onerous. However, having read Frances Stark's 'The Architect and The Housewife' three times, each time with greater attention than the last, the prospect of producing an unequivocal architectural review becomes considerably more complicated. Summarily, Stark's book recounts the exploits of a thirty-something artist who works alone, sometimes at home, and is under pressure to knit together home life and professional integrity. Significantly, 'The Architect and The Housewife' is not a standard architectural text but an artist book published through Book Works, a London-based non-profit commissioning organisation, which collaborates with artists to produce books under a variety of inventive and purposefully challenging circumstances and themes. Book Works promotes writing, which is normally viewed as an introverted and secondary activity in comparison with more tangible practices such as painting, drawing or sculpture, as a primary creative endeavour. It attempts to thrust writing not only to the forefront of artistic production but also to secure its position as a creative practice in and of itself, at par, for example, with painting, making and sculpting.
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机译：审查一本39页，像小册子一样的A5尺寸的细长书，图像奇特的书似乎很难。但是，三度读过弗朗西斯·史塔克（Frances Stark）的《建筑师与家庭主妇》（The Architect and The Housewife）以来，每次都比上一次受到更多的关注，因此进行明确的建筑评论的前景变得相当复杂。简而言之，斯塔克的书讲述了一位三十多岁的艺术家的成就，他独自工作，有时在家中工作，并且承受着将家庭生活和职业诚信相结合的压力。值得注意的是，“建筑师和家庭主妇”不是标准的建筑文字，而是通过总部位于伦敦的非营利性委托机构Book Works出版的艺术家书籍，该作品与艺术家合作在各种创造性和有挑战性的环境下制作书籍和主题。图书创作促进写作，而绘画，素描或雕塑等更具体的实践则将写作视为主要的创造性工作，而写作通常被视为内向和次要的活动。它不仅试图将写作推向艺术生产的最前沿，而且还试图确保其作为创作实践的地位，例如与绘画，制作和雕刻相提并论。
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