Contemplation
Contemplation is about the act of looking, especially looking as an internal process; looking at ourselves inside our self. It is a silent book, containing pages looking at other pages. Continuity of contemplation is created by having the folds on the foredge. This sets the still into motion.
The book is made from eight black and white negatives (1940s) found in an uncategorized family archive in a basement room at the Visual Studies Workshop. The man portrayed remains unknown; and it is as if he knows it. The book is based on the idea of this man looking at himself and at the reader. The cover has a mirror element where the reader can find his or her own eyes.
Archival pigment ink, handbound with stab binding, folds on the foredge, 16 pages. Edition of 29 numbered copies. Rochester, NY 2008.
Also see an impression of the book on the Mrs Deane blog. The book is included in the collections of Bibliothèque Kandinsky (Centre Pompidou), Bodleian Library (special collections at the Weston Library), Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, John M. Flaxman Library at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago (Joan Flasch collection), Kunst- und museumsbibliothek Köln (Museum Ludwig), Nederlands Fotomuseum and University of the Arts London (Chelsea College of Art and Design).
The book is sold out.
Elisabeth Tonnard 