HOW TO PEER THROUGH A WORMHOLE
HOW TO PEER THROGH A WORMHOLE
EL LIBRO Y SUS TESTIGOS / THE BOOK AND ITS WITNESSES
An ongoing inquiry
[see text below]
EL MOSAICO MEXICANO
Triptych
2023
Pigment prints on cotton rag
17 inches x 12.75 inches each, with artist’s frame
In 2014, I first visited the Biblioteca Fray Francisco de Burgoa in Oaxaca, Mexico. The library preserves premodern texts, many of which—due to their provenance—happen to be marked by wormholes from ancient larval incursions. Instead of seeing the books as aberrations, these books with their wormholes are compelling facts of matter: everything transforms. My first visit to the Burgoa Library resulted in the artist’s book exhibition: Materias: Matter and Subject Matter (2015). A link to a PDF of the catalogue of that exhibit can be accessed here.
To further explore wormholes in books, I have partnered with Carla Nappi to spend more time peering through —and thinking with— the wormholes. We will explore how the holes embody alliances, at once deliberate and accidental, between human authors and the larvae that metabolize the matter of books. The voids in the wormholes will guide us. And as we pay attention, over time we will develop a series of works utilizing a range of media and texts. This project will be an interpretive translation of the enchantments and potentials of reading with wormholes.
Carla Nappi and I shared one aspect of this multifaceted project in INSCRIPTION: The Journal of Material Text #2
Dianna Frid wishes to acknowledge the significant support she received from the Canada Council for the Arts through a long-term project grant.
In 2023, She also received generous support from donors to 3AP through 3Arts (Chicago). Thank you! In 2020, Dianna Frid also received seed funds for this project from the University of Illinois at Chicago's Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research.
Unless otherwise noted, the premodern and early modern books that Frid documented, photographed, and filmed are part of the collection of the Biblioteca Fray Francisco de Burgoa, Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, Mexico. Dianna Frid wishes to thank the Burgoa staff for granting her extensive access to the Burgoa's worm-holed holdings. Gracias.