Sorted Books: Reference

"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.

Reference took place in a now-defunct New York gallery called Spot in 1996. The gallerist, who also lived illegally in the back of the space, was a photographer and former eye surgeon. His book collection reflected his interest in art history, theory, photography and criticism, but there were also many medical reference books left over from his past profession. In effect, there were two kinds of books about seeing: the books dealing with vision in the context of art history and criticism, and the books dealing with vision in its most mechanical and literal sense. I found one book with a call number on the spine, which suggested it actually belonged to a lending library.