Project brief: “Palahniuk’s rude send-up of name-dropping and the culture of celebrity worship revolves around the fate of Katherine Kenton, a much-married star of stage, screen and television, living in obscurity and searching for a comeback vehicle. Her story is told by Mazie Coogan—her Thelma Ritterish, straight-shooting confidant and protector—whose warning system sounds when Miss Kathie meets Webster Carlton Westward III, who quickly seduces his way into her Manhattan townhouse. It’s soon revealed he’s working on a memoir about his affair with Miss Kathie; the last chapter ends with her anticipated death, the details of which keep changing. The affair coincides with Miss Kathie’s comeback in a bombastic Broadway extravaganza penned by Lillian Hellman (who receives inexplicably savage treatment). Throughout, Palahniuk drops names from the famous to the head-scratchingly obscure, peppers the narrative with neologisms supposedly coined by famous gossip columnists (ex-husbands are was-bands) and annoyingly styles the text so that nearly every name, brand name and fabulous venue appears in bold. Unfortunately, this gossipy fantasia is a one-joke premise that, even at its modest length, wears out its welcome well before Miss Kathie’s final fade-out.” —Amazon.com

A collage of letters taken from signage is not easy to pull off. But when re-drawn, placed in the same perspective and rendered in candy colors that are overprinted with a glittery layer of varnished letters, it’s dazzlingly appropriate and completely unique.