Fool Proof is a 28-page book of 12 poems, issued in an edition of 150. The folio-folded, single codex books were designed, printed, and handbound in Key West. The image below shows the inside flap with an introductory text by John Ashbery (quoted below). A full-width decorative leaf of Canson Ingres Burgundy is used at the beginning & end of the book. Tiziano Light Blue Gray is used for the cover; Hahnemuhle Ingres White for the text. The binding is a simple pamphlet-stitch using unbleached burgundy linen thread. Type was set with Adobe PageMaker in Palatino.
This book was published with support from the Anne McKee Artists Fund.

The introduction by John Ashbery reads: "Divest, or diverge," Arlo Haskell tells himself in these short, apparently simple poems. He "divests" by forgoing major themes and statements, and he diverges from this program by somehow managing to include them anyway, in unexpected places or odd turns of phrase which the reader is unlikely to examine closely. On the surface he is writing about daily life in his native Key West: gardening, sailing, bicycling, eating a sandwich, spending a moment alone with a woman. But his plain-spokenness hides subterfuges. Before we have taken in the parti-colored room in Meditation, he is announcing "Welcome to the poem. / The poem is still going. / The poem is gone." Yet the reader feels invigorated rather than deprived by this sudden subtraction, and able to embrace the rich, "divergent" living that was happening around us without our noticing it.

A few tools of the trade: Steel square, bone- and teflon-folders, linen thread, razor knife, bookbinder's awl, needles and ruler.