Sorted Books: Composition
Relax, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
"Sorted Books" is my longest ongoing project. It began in 1993 and has taken place on many different sites over the years, including in the private homes of friends, in rare book libraries, and in the archives of important literary figures. The process is the same in every case: I sort through a collection of books, make note of particular titles, and eventually group the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence. The final results are most often shown as photographs of the book clusters, but on occasion, I exhibit the grouped books themselves. Taken as a whole, the clusters are a cross-section of that library's holdings that function as a kind of portrait.
Composition, the first of the book sorting projects, took place in a private home in Half Moon Bay, California. It was the result of an experiment (we called it “The Half Moon Bay Experiment”) during graduate school where six fellow students took up residence in a private home for a week and made art with whatever we found there.
The couple living in the house were both real estate agents in their forties. They had been married for about five years—a second marriage for both of them. When they moved in together, they merged their book collections which now filled about twenty tall bookcases that occupied the entire middle section of the house. There was a great deal of literature, self-help, and motivational writing in their library. There were also many instances where I discovered two copies of the same book; I tried to make use of this meaningful overlap whenever possible. At the end of the week, we held an open house. I displayed my book clusters on the bookshelves together with all the other books, turned so that their pages faced out, to help call attention to the sorted books.
Hamlet, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
King Lear, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
Macbeth, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
Repeat After Me, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
Romeo and Juliet, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.
The Art of Conversation, from the series Composition, 1993, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 15 × 12.5 inches.