It : A Poem/Play Installation
Category: Preserve for the Future
Location: American Art and Portrait Gallery Library
It : a poem/play installation
It: A Poem/Play Installation packs a lot into a small package. As an artists' book, it is considered a work of art and when read, it can be activated as a performance. The New York–based artist, Coco Gordon, incorporates a range of materials in the work such as handmade paper, acetate sheets, xerox copies, photographs, text, and sculptural elements. Each book is hand-bound with a wooden chopstick and has a miniature model of Gordon’s 12 foot sculpture "IT" — a red, lobster claw-like mesh item meant for the reader to “contemplate, lift, unfold, take anywhere."
This is a late-20th century artists' book side sewn with a rubber thread around a wooden dowel. The cover and some of the pages are printed Mylar; these are interspersed with paper pages. The rubber thread has broken at the second sewing station. The book is also housed in a box that is too large for the volume. Conservators will resew the book using thick black thread to replicate the original look of the rubber thread. A double tray box will be created to house this delicate volume.
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