WHAT installation view: acrylic on canvas over panels, 2006
WHAT series
Categories drawn from two competing systems for classifying books, Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress. Each canvas represents a category of thousands of books, millions of words. A given work borrows related categories from each of the two systems. Strange affinities, clipped narratives.
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WILL, ETC. acrylic on canvas over two panels, 2006
BLANK BOOKS, ETC. acrylic on canvas over five panels, 2006
CROWDS, ETC. acrylic on canvas over four panels, 2006
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SHADES OF GREY (DEWEY DECIMAL) oil-based alkyd enamel silkscreen print on acrylic over canvas on seventy panels, 74" x 560" x 1.25", 2005
A painting inspired by the Dewey Decimal System. Each canvas represents a Dewey code number and classification. Many categories are hopelessly broad, others absurdly specific. Many more are "Not assigned or no longer used" in the Dewey system and designated as such on the canvas. Several panels have no text at all, representing gaps and elisions in the system. A study in ambiguity from a system purporting to be encyclopedic and objective.
SHADES OF GREY (DEWEY DECIMAL) (detail) 2005