Without hands (click through to see the full 5000px wide image)
With hands (click through to see the full 5000px wide image)
This is an experiment to document/represent the laser cut books I have been making. They are all reference books, which used to get photocopied, but are now just plain obsolete. I have been laser cutting poetic epigrams into them. I thought that returning them to their original status as things-to-be-photocopied might have some resonance. So i scanned them. This is a worldbook – just a test. This is a tabloid(?) sized scanner (and this is the smallest book I have cut.
I am unsure if this works or not, and whether the hands help or hinder the idea. Hands always showed up in old photocopies of books, but here, it seems overwrought? Or does the reference carry meaning?
Also, I was just informed by Billy Quin AKA Bottom Feeder that Irish arist Dorothy Cross did something similar with the Bible. I can’t find any images on Google, so if anyone has any further info on that work, please add it in the comments.
Tags: laserletters1 Comment
1 response so far ↓
hey, i’ve been thinking on this since your last post about it. I LOVE how you see hands in photocopies. It’s one of my favorite academic “haptic” moments, when you notice the hand, even the fingerprint patterns, of whoever photocopied what you’re reading. Here in UC, we photocopy stuff a lot. Everything I submit to electronic reserves has to be photocopied first, before they push it through a scanner.
Anyway, my point is that I get it and love the hands. But I also enjoy hand moments most when they are varied, inconsistent, sloppy, the hallmark of mechanically repeating a task that isn’t that important. Like you’d see a pinky finger around the edge on one photocopy, then maybe one wrist at an angle on another. Your even, two-handed approach makes me envision this hilarious anal person freaking out over their copies, yet unable to figure out how to hide hands or crop, which seems like their real desire. & maybe that’s what you want.
Anyway, yes, hands, like. I miss your body in your work. Loved that in college, was so important to you.