Skip to Content

Photo Credit: David Dietrich

Artist
Title

Untitled (small library)

Date
1979
Century
20th century
Medium & Support
Epoxy resin, paint and wood
Dimensions
overall: 13 3/4 x 10 5/8 x 3 1/4 in.
Style
Abstraction
Object Type
Sculpture and Installations
Credit Line
Gift of the Waitzkin Memorial Library and Kohler Foundation Inc.
Accession Number
2012.03.38
Copyright
In Copyright
© Waitzkin Memorial Library Trust
Description

Rows of old books on 3 shelves enclosed in a old wood frame, books are covered with paint (in muted colors) and epoxy resin.

Label History

A student of Hans Hofmann and Willem de Kooning, Waitzkin brought Abstract Expressionist sensibilities to the Book Art movement. Brooklyn-native Waitzkin moved into the Chelsea Hotel in lower Manhattan in 1968, where she worked for the next 35 years in a one-bedroom apartment. In 1973 she began producing work in her primary medium of polyester resin, which she used to cast her signature subject: the book. She created molds of leather-bound books and infused resin with vibrant pigments to generate colorful and at times luminous objects. Waitzkin relished the contradiction of creating books without words. She enjoyed the paradox of sculpted books that both evoke humanity’s collective wisdom yet are rendered silent, as they are closed forever to the reader.

Exhibition Title: Asheville Art Museum: An Introduction to the Collection
Label Date: 2021
Type: Catalogue Entry
Written by: Lola Clairmont

Showing 11 of 24