Elisabeth Tonnard

This book followed from the wish to make color surfaces that would be based purely on color numbers instead of aesthetic choices, and that could meanwhile still be read as aesthetic objects and physical substances. It ended up as a highly process-based book reflecting on absence.

Signs here have become independent, no longer referring to things. Baudrillard’s thoughts on simulacra and simulations were an influence. The color surfaces are simulacra of simulacra. I tried to locate God and searched an online phonebook for the numbers of names (“Where”, “Is”, and “God”) connected to my question. The numbers were used in Photoshop’s digital palettes to create color fields and gradients. The same numbers were used to compose short texts on each spread.

Full color perfect bound paperback. 118 pages. Rochester, NY 2007. See more images or read the introduction.

This book is sold out.

The book is included in the collections of the Bodleian Library (special collections at the Weston Library), Columbia University, Kunstbibliothek (Berlin), John M. Flaxman Library at School of The Art Institute of Chicago (Joan Flasch collection), MoMA Library, National Library of The Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek), Tate Library and Archive, and University of the Arts London (Chelsea College of Art and Design).