How to Make an Antique
How to Make an Antique
1989
case bound book of hand marbled Rives paper, tipped in computer-imaged text; handmade furniture; video
48”H x 21”W x 40”D
Collaboration with Robert Lawrence
How to make an Antique sets up a compare/contrast relationship between the book and the video. Both are time-based and sequential, the reader determines the pacing, rhythm and direction as the pages are turned, while the TV sends its stream of images regardless of viewer interest. As with the odd idea that one can “make an antique” it explores the malleability of time, the timeless moment.
Produced with funds from Jerome Foundation/ M.C.B.A. Book Arts Fellowship
How to Make an Antique
1989
offset printed, rubber stamps, staple bound
7”H x 8”W
16 pages
Edition 500
From Printed Matter:
How to Make an Antique is at once a record and a condensation of a show Wirth and Lawrence mounted at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in 1989. The work presents a handwritten timeline of technological advents pertaining to time, recording, and communication that runs throughout the book. All of the pages are paired: a quote relevant to the invention the timeline indicates at any given point is juxtaposed with an outmoded radio, television, or computer. The visual backdrop for each page is a grainy reproduction of Italian book paper from its high baroque, halcyon days.
How to Make an Antique is available through Printed Matter, NY.
Photos by Jim Tittle