Dictionary Compositions
Dictionary Compositions (WIP) is an interdisciplinary altered book project. The work includes a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary w. original paintings on dictionary pages; time-lapse video documentation; digital photographs and (digital) drawings based on the original paintings.
Twenty years ago I rescued this big dictionary dumpster diving. I saw it splayed and smashed atop of a pile of broken sheetrock in a Farmington Library dumpster bin. The unabridged Websters was in bad shape: the cover was just barely holding on; the broken spine disengaged from the thick folio pages. The dictionary was in bad shape but I saved it because It was a very smart object.
The dictionary sat untouched until the summer of 2019 when I opened it up to the letter “C,” and began painting india ink lines and marks over its pages. I responded to the book’s pages by painting words and imagery and recorded my actions with a time-lapse video. (This is a work in progress, Spring 2021)
