Provisional Library, 2007
Contribution to Another Story, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures. -Heraclitus the Obscure
“Provisional Library” was our contribution to the exhibition “Another Story” curated by Pat Swanson at the Hyde Park Art Center. The work came out of a large donation of books from the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. The books we collected were the remnants of the annual book sales on campus- what was left after “free day”. They were scheduled to be thrown away. The books for the “Provisional Library” were re-fashioned into dimensional lumber, fully removable from their frame. The installation is an interrupted contruction zone, a fire place mantel, an absurd library.
Curator’s Description:
Another Story examines the range of conceptual, abstract, and figurative approaches that artists use when the book or its surrogate is at the heart of their investigations. The exhibition concentrates on new or recent works by Lisa Barense, Stephanie Brooks, Lucy Baxandall, Brian Dettmer, Katheryn Kucera, Material Exchange, Mark Rospenda and Rhonda Wheatley.
When an artist conceives a work that starts with a book, a page, or a text, there may already be a story or a meaning implicit. How an artist uses (or ignores) that story as a starting point to extend, celebrate, imitate, distort, or warp the underlying item to make a new work of art. Some artists featured in this exhibition make books, others alter them, deconstruct them, mimic or satirize their forms, appropriate or obliterate their texts, or re-contextualize them.
