Newspapers and books offer archives of narrative. They differ significantly in that the form of books is neutral in and of itself- its design is intended to immerse the reader in a world built of their imagination, and while their formal details are carefully chosen by a designer, open books seen side by side look similar.
Newspapers in their pure form, that is, news on paper, are struggling to stay afloat financially in a digital world, but even when they were the sole means of disseminating the news, their front page was designed to capture the attention of as many readers as possible. Demographics of readership have been defined and newspaper elements are understood as signifiers of readership, especially in New York, where a Post reader might scoff at a Times reader, and vice versa.
My interest in books and newspapers as basis for art stems not only from my interest in the aesthetics of the page, but also a desire to subvert textual narrative- to see how much information can be removed or transformed before a new narrative appears. My process is both destructive and constructive, as the legibility of the page is undermined while a new pattern emerges from traces of the original interacting with removal or deterioration. I am mindful that much of this work is situated in a specific time and place so that it becomes a historical document as well as an aesthetic one. The forms I use are congruent with the forms of the page in that they are mostly geometrical, and privilege image over text.
My grandparents were in the scrap paper business and as a child I spent hours in the warehouse among bales of paper to be destroyed or recycled. This may have led me to fetishize the newspaper in its original form; I emphasize its fragility, but ultimately celebrate its enduring value.