“The Arbitrary Text of Wreckage” – Poem & Artist’s Book

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d e t a i l s

This bookwork was based on the poem of the same title, which I’d written ten years earlier and subsequently published. The Arbitrary Text Of Wreckage was archaeology of a sort, exploring fragmented, partially lost narratives and the human compulsion to complete them. As with my other visual textworks, this artist’s book provided another way of re-imagining and engaging with the ideas in the poem.

The Arbitrary Text Of Wreckage (sample pages are shown above) was part of Art House Co-op’s “Sketchbook Project 2014”, 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. This was one of the many books lost.

Single copy of 32 pages, 5″w x 7″h, printed using archival digital ink on ivory antique laid paper; Canson Mi-Teintes end papers; card cover re-papered with Japanese Shin Inbe hemp, Nepalese waxed, and Tibetan banded papers; re-bound with waxed linen thread.

ARKITEXWERKS (Ajax, ON, 2014). ISBN: N/A.