Rereading

This week I reread Erica Baum’s rereading, Dod Ear.

Dog Ear, Erica Baum, New York : Ugly Duckling Press

When you saves their place in a book by folding back the corner of a single page, that book becomes dog-eared;  A dog-ear creates a square at the top right corner of a book, the page folded down with text running vertically and the newly visible page behind it with text running horizontally.  The juxtaposition between the text of these two pages is the subject of New York photographer Erica Baum’s book Dog Ear. 

I am a longtime enthusiast of Erica Baum, who has created simple, sharp images from sections of text found on blackboards, labels, library catalogs, book indexes and archives. Many of Baum’s photographs read like concrete poetry, while others break pieces of words into shapes, physicalizing loaded language to the edge of meaninglessness.

Her word play is at once, both deeply contemporary and achingly nostalgic, a mourning for a more physical relationship to knowledge.

For more information visit: http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/