MARGINAL IDEAS
INSPIRATION AND PREMISE: J.D.Salinger. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. c.1951 p.25.
What I like best is a book that’s at least funny once in a while. I read a lot of classical books, like “Return of the Native” and all, and I like them, and I read a lot of war books and mysteries and all, but they don’t knock me out too much. What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. I wouldn’t mind calling this Isak Dinesen up. And Ring Lardner, except D.B. told me he’s dead. You take that book “Of Human Bondage”, by Somerset Maugham, though. I read it last summer. It’s a pretty good book and all, but I wouldn’t want to call Somerset Maugham up. I don’t know. He just isn’t the kind of guy I’d want to call up, that’s all. I’d rather call old Thomas Hardy up. I like that Eustacia Vye...
54 wooden diptychs representing classic works of modern literature combined with 54 gold leafed shelves and 54 votives were assembled in the gallery. The individual works reinterpret the book as a sacred object that has been anonymously annotated by academics at the University of Toronto. The authors’ portraits are rendered in graphite on the left leaf, superimposed with the text of a double page spread faithfully transcribed by hand in ink. The marginalia was reproduced in pencil. The diptychs are composed of MDF (6”x9”x1”) with gold leaf on the edges and secured with brass piano hinges. When activated by the viewer (THE opening and THE closing OF the objects) the installation reveals the shimmer of the materials and hidden messages. The whole process of this ritual thereby simultaneously commemorates the author, the ideas, the reader and time.
REDISCOVERING THE SACREDNESS OF READING
“THE INSTALLATION OF DELPH’S FIFTY-FOUR ‘BOOK DUMMY/ DIPTYCHS’ AT DE LUCA FINE ART OFFERS THE VIEWER A UNIQUE REFLECTION ON THE READING OF BOOKS IN AN AGE WHEN E-BOOKS SEEM TO HAVE TAKEN OVER FROM THE PHYSICAL OBJECTS. WE ARE DRAWN BACK INTO THE ANCIENT RITUAL OF READING AND WRITING THROUGH MULTI-LAYERED ARTWORKS WHICH, AS THEY UNFOLD, REVEAL THEIR INNER CORE AND MYSTERY. AT FIRST SIGHT, WHEN CLOSED, THEY LOOK LIKE HYBRID LIBRARY PLACEHOLDERS (BOOK DUMMIES), WITH THE NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY ON TOP (THE ARTIST SPENT ENDLESS HOURS AMONG THE STACKS OF THE VARIOUS LIBRARIES ON CAMPUS), THE CALL NUMBER, AUTHOR, TITLE, AND THE REASON THE ORIGINAL BOOK IS NOT THERE. OPEN, THEY SUGGEST REAL PRINTEDBOOKS, THEIR ORIGINS IN THE ANCIENT SACRED DIPTYCH FORMAT, AND EVOKE A “GESTALT” VIEW OF EXCERPTS FROM FIFTY-FOUR CLASSIC NOVELS, MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN AND CANADIAN LITERATURE, ACCOMPANIED BY ANNOTATIONS FROM ANONYMOUS SCHOLARLY READERS. WHAT APPEARS ON THE LEFT IS A PORTRAIT OF AN AUTHOR IN PENCIL, WHO FINALLY HAS A FACE AND CAN THEREFORE BE IDENTIFIED, PARTLY SUPERIMPOSED ON THE EXACT FACSIMILE TRANSCRIPTION OF A PRINTED PAGE, RIGOROUSLY DONE BY HAND IN ARCHIVAL INK: FROM GRAHAM GREENE TO ROBERTSON DAVIES, FROM ITALO CALVINO TO LEONARD COHEN, FROM JAMES JOYCE TO MARGARET ATWOOD, FROM HERMAN HESSE TO MICHAEL ONDAATJE. THE MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS AND THE UNDERLINING OF THE PHYSICAL COPIES OF THE BOOKS, FAITHFULLY REPRODUCED, INSTEAD OF BEING CONSIDERED A DEFACEMENT DETRACTING FROM THE LITERARY PAGE(S), PROVIDE A SORT OF LIVING TEXT IN USE OVER TIME/IN ACTIVE USE. IN THIS WAY, THE PASSAGE REPRESENTED ON THE ARTWORK EXAMINES HUMAN INTERACTION BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL BOOK AND THE READER EVOKING LOCAL HISTORIES AND LEGENDS THAT HAVE UNIVERSAL RESONANCE.
THESE MULTIMEDIA SCULPTURAL WORKS BECOME ALSO ARCHITECTURAL INSTALLATIONS, TACTILE AND OF GREAT EMOTIONAL AND SPIRITUAL IMPACT. RACHEL DELPH’S ‘BOOKS’ ARE PRESENTED ABOVE SHELVES AND CAN BE READ BY THE LIGHT OF A VOTIVE CANDLE SO THAT THE GRAPHITE OF THE DRAWING AND THE GOLD LEAF ON THE EDGES AND SPINE OF THE BOOK SHIMMER AND SUGGEST THE ANCIENT MAGIC OF ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. MOREOVER, THE SHADOW OF THE LIGHT PROVIDES A VIRTUAL FRAME TO THE ARTWORK. IN THIS PERSPECTIVE, THE BOOK BECOMES SACRED AGAIN, SUSPENDED BETWEEN THE TANGIBLE AND THE INTANGIBLE. MOST OF THE TIME WE READ IN A HURRY, BUT THESE DIPTYCHS ENTICE A DIFFERENT KIND OF READING; THEY INVITE THE VIEWER TO ENTER THE TEXT AS IT HAS LIVED IN TIME, ENCLOSING A SACRED IMAGE THAT ONCE OPEN IN PRIVACY REVEALS A SECRET, A PATH TO A NEW AWARENESS.”