After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, most homes were left “powerless” for at least three weeks. When residents returned to the city, they found their refrigerators filled with spoiled foods. Most residents placed their fridges out on the street for pickup and disposal. Some decided to spray-paint personal or political messages on them. Some of these messages were quite funny. This book is a record of that singular phenomenon.

Placing the small book inside a freezer-type bag seemed logical. The book has found an audience outside the city, but it has sold mainly to those from New Orleans who returned or were displaced.

As a small, saddle-stitched almost-pamphlet (at 48 pages, it barely squeaked in at minimum book requirements), Spoiled has an immediate impact that it might not otherwise have enjoyed as a larger, more lavish art book. The simple design—full-page images recto with clever text excerpts left—lets the appliances and their spray-painted messages speak loudly and cleverly for themselves. Score one for cheap, fast and elegant.