Impossible Dreams was the last published novel by artist Pati Hill, a US writer and artist who unlocked the printmaking potential of the photocopier.
Released in 1976 after it was partially published two years earlier in the Carolina Quarterly under the title 'An Angry French Housewife', Impossible Dreams tells the story of Geneviève, a middle-aged woman whose life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly falls in love with her neighbour, Dolly.
Mixing anecdotes with existential thoughts, the novel describes the gradual disruption of the heroine’s daily life. Almost every chapter is accompanied by a xerograph of a photograph, selected by Hill with permission from its maker. The resulting combination of text and image constitutes her most ambitious attempt to produce a work in which 'the two elements fuse to become something other than either.'
Daisy Editions, 192pp, 16cm x 20cm, illustrated paperback, 2025