MATERIAS, OR HOW TO PEER THROUGH A WORMHOLE, 2015
MATERIAS, or HOW TO PEER THROUGH A WORMHOLE
In 2014, I first visited the Biblioteca Francisco de Burgoa in Oaxaca, Mexico. The library preserves premodern texts, many of which, because of their provenance, happen to be marked by wormholes from ancient larval incursions. Instead of seeing the books as damaged, 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 in 2015: Materias: Matter and Subject Matter. A catalogue of that project can be accessed here.
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Between 2019 and 2025, I continued to visit the Burgoa library to document and think with its remarkable wormholed holdings. Following those visits, in the summer of 2025, I presented the exhibit The Book and its Witnesses, the last installment of many years of visits and astonishments.
Unless otherwise noted, the premodern and early modern books that Frid photographed and filmed are housed in 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 access to the Burgoa's worm-holed holdings. Gracias.