Language, Decipherment, and Translation - from Then to Now
Language, Decipherment, and Translation – from Then to Now, an exhibition at the Grolier Club, was on view there from February 29 through May 11, 2024, located on the second floor.
One can now see the exhibition virtually on the Grolier Club website:
The exhibition was well received! Here are some write ups:
Arts Summary
Fine Books & Collections
The Art Newspaper
Drawn primarily from my personal collection of approximately 2,000 books and prints, and growing, this exhibition reflects my collecting interests spanning the ancient world, especially Egypt; the work of Walt Whitman; the history of art, especially photography; and books made by contemporary artists.
First let me tell you a little bit about myself and my collection. I am not an Egyptologist or a specialist in any one area. I do not consider myself to be a scholar, much less a theorist or someone who works towards logical conclusions. More interesting to me is observing themes through time and artists’ books allow me to make those connections. I am interested in communication through books and like to observe links through time. Of keen interest to me are museums, libraries and places like the Grolier Club that value the legacy of books and knowledge with its respect for print culture and scholarly interest in words and images.
It feels like I have been collecting for a long time dating to my early efforts to scoop up everything I could find on the Beatles and then followed by many other interests. My collecting inspiration came from my Mother who was an avid collector of antiques and books that fed her interest in American history. I started to collect art books in college and continued as I worked in libraries and studied art history. My decision to get a masters in library and information science at Pratt was based on my love of books and being surrounded by them and by people who love to read books. An interest in artists books began when I worked at the Brooklyn Museum where I had opportunities to visit bookstores like Printed Matter and Jaap Rietman and to visit Tony Zwicker’s lovely apartment at the National Arts Club. There I found wonderful books that offered tactile experiences presenting textual and visual messages that seemed to speak to the encyclopedic collections held at the Museum. Since those early days I had the pleasure of collecting artists’ books for the Brooklyn Museum until I retired in 2017.
Since then I have been collecting artists’ books for myself with a main focus on multiples (open editions), some limited editions, and a few unique works made by artists working internationally. These books have strengthened my curiosity about cultures around the world and led to my questioning the notion of the death of the printed book. Rejecting technology is not the point of my collecting as I recognize the importance of how information can be easily accessed via the Internet. I just choose to enjoy the rich landscape of the contemporary artist book in print form as opposed to the virtual experience. This article summarizes my ideas about collecting artists’s books.
Working at both the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston gave me the welcome opportunity to see an encyclopedic range of collections and to know many colleagues who generously shared their knowledge about the objects they oversaw. As Principal Librarian at the Brooklyn Museum, I had the great opportunity to oversee extensive research collections and to curate and co-curate several exhibitions drawn from those collections, including Artists Books (2000) and Egypt through Other Eyes, presented in two parts ranging from early travel and exploration to the popularization of ancient Egypt (2003 - 2006). The Museum’s early history sparked my ongoing interest in Walt Whitman who had served as librarian of the Brooklyn Institute, predecessor of the Museum. This interest resulted in essays and exhibitions including Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today with a focus on artists’ books held at the Center for Book Arts in New York in 2019.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to present an exhibition at the Grolier Club with works that focused on a collecting interest of mine: language, its decipherment, and translation, starting with early attempts to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and concluding with the work of contemporary book artists. The theme was inspired by the two hundredth aniversary of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone. Images of the Rosetta Stone were included in the exhibition, as well as examples of early attempts at deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Moving beyond these early works, the exhibition made a seismic leap in time to books created by contemporary artists who are interested in language, decipherment, and translation. Books and prints focused on a variety of languages - some real and some invented - are included, representing a range of typography and photographic processes. Subthemes of the exhibition included erasure, signs and symbols, and other forms of communication, as well as storytelling. Formats ranged from the traditional codex form, to collages, prints, and scrolls to sculpted books. Lots of talks were given with a large and diverse group of folks who wanted to know more about the items on view. The most gratifying discussions were with younger people who are drawn to the tactile experience that physical books bring to the world.
Thank you to the many people who have contributed their thoughts to the creation of this exhibition. I would like to say a big thank you to two people in particular: Keith DuQuette, an accomplished artist and expert collaborator on the design and production of this exhibition, and my husband, Clem Labine, who has patiently read my words and supported my projects over the years.