d e t a i l s
Words as symbols of ideas have allowed humans to explore, understand, communicate, document, and achieve. BinaReCodings – ‘In the beginning was the word‘ was part of an ongoing study of words as fact, their omnipresence in human life, and the import of language on the page. As a bookwork, it offered an album of snapshots, of words and pages culled from history. It provided a glimpse into the progression of recorded language that has given us epics, histories, poetry, novels, records, guidelines and instruction, as well as change-inducing ideas.
BinaReCodings was also a kind of flip-book. The opening phrase of the biblical Book of John was translated into binary code. This high-tech, yet somehow primitive form is the very language that enabled the inception of computers and our modern inter-networked world. But in this instance, “the Word” was, instead, “the word” – i.e. the human facility for language – and this phrase, segmented over 16 pages, provided the thread along which key moments from our written past were strung. Typewritten lines and a reproduced computer card motif with hand-cut ‘punches’ extended the information transfer theme.
This artist’s book (sample pages shown above) was part of Art House Co-op’s “Sketchbook Project 2013”, an evolving, growing collection of creative works in the form of sketchbooks contributed each year by individuals world-wide. The collection toured North American cities for many months, then was physically housed at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York City and online in the companion Digital Library. In 2022, a substantial portion of the library’s collection was destroyed by fire. BinaReCodings was one of those books lost.
Single copy of 32 pages, 5″w x 7″h, mixed media (coloured pencil, archival inks, acrylic paint, etc.) on hand-cut paper; Japanese obonai feather end papers; card cover re-papered with cardstock, Nepalese waxed and Tibetan banded papers; re-bound with waxed linen thread.
ARKITEXWERKS (Ajax, ON, 2013). ISBN: N/A.
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