one day i left work which was a swanky bldg in soho containing superswanky
lofts and a lot of good names on the neighbors' mailboxes. there in the trash,
tied together to be recycled, were 7 volumes of the encyclopedia britannica.
not just any old britannica volumes, nay, but leatherbound tomes that turned
out to be ca. 1880 (a few different dates) all part of the ninth edition of the britannica.
i've always enjoyed the britannica and encyclopedias in general. when i changed
schools in grade school my nerdiness was immediately revealed by my encyclopedia
reading habit. hell, even the world book is better than most teachers in the
midwest.
i hauled these volumes to my tiny cell in harlem that had a window on the
air shaft and a mouse named ralph who wore a little red cape.
i sat, smoking, and went through all seven volumes. poring over the illustrations:
plates, maps, technical drawings, animals. damn few humans to be seen though.
no portraits. no photography.
i marked the illustrations i liked the best and chose a volume and cut it
apart. these are superbly made with creamy luscious paper. not easy to take
apart. and of course the paper by now is brittle. a lot of care to be taken.
so far i've cut two. their exact titles i cannot recall. gou to heat or so and an M volume.
here's a taste of the resulting collages. i collect as many good elements as i can. from as many directions as possible and spanning the entire subsequent timeframe.
miningbull
mesopotamia
48
mesopotamia
51
middlesex
280
middlesex
map
metaphysic
81
mosaic
851
guild
260
grasses
54
grasses
58
gregory
176
meteorology
you can always go home