ledger, laser engraved dictionary covers, pages, thread, wool felt, gesso, white lacquered shelf, frame, 16 x 144 x14 inches, 2003
ledger joins dictionary covers of multiple languages into one long (twelve foot) book cover placed on a shelf. The shelf is backed with mounted cut dictionary pages placed vertically in columns. Text is engraved into the surface of the covers and into a piece of felt to explore ideas about personal and universal measurements of loss and gain.
webster's line 2; 3, dictionary pages, polyurethane, sheet rock, 9.75 x 146 x 1.75 inches; 10 x 146 x 1.75 inches, 2002-03, Meadowbrook Art Gallery installation
webster's line 1, dictionary pages, polyurethane, sheet rock, 9.5 x 180 x 1.75 inches, 1999, Cranbrook Art Museum installation
webster's line 2; 3, detail
In relationship to my interest in identity and genetic makeup, I shifted my attention slightly and found myself collecting dictionaries, filling my studio with pages of words, cut and re-arranged to reveal only the patterns of ink, punctuated with graphic thumb indexes. Much like genetic banding patterns, webster’s lines, composed of cut pages aligned into long running sequences and embedded within sheet rock walls, forced both movement across and close attention to the delicate traces of an unknown, although familiar system.