Frank Warren: 'PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions...'

You may have come across some of the touching postcard art in 'Extraordinary Confessions From Ordinary Lives' already. People have been sending their secrets to Frank Warren on postcards since 2004, when he distributed blank cards in subway stations, art galleries and libraries asking them to send them in. And in they came, making enough material for an interesting online gallery (www.postsecret.com) and a book or two, plus some have been serialised in a weekend supplement – a bit of a phenomenon, really.

Hundreds of cards are presented in this coffee-table-friendly hardback tome, ranging from the poignant (“l still haven't told my father that I have the same disease that killed my mother”) to the chuckle-inducing (“I know it really stinks, but I like the smell of my own poop”) and the worrying (“My parents are related”). Some are confined to minimal handwritten phrases, but most are decorated endearingly with collage or drawings.

It's nice to dip into these wall-to-wall reminders of human desires, fears and fallibilities, but on the other hand it can feel rather like sitting in on a whole bunch of sickly American therapy sessions.

Published 2nd November 2006 by Orion.

Written by Caroline Lewis.