Noticeable Absence

Artist's book
inkjet hand-bound
9.25 x 5.75 x .5 (closed)
​2014

This artist’s book explores of the idea of mutually exclusive yet insistently joined words/states of being. Terms like “minor miracle” literally represent that struggle against formidable forces; yet the forces (culture, fear, war, injustice, ignorance) themselves are often not spoken in the conversation and are hence “noticeably absent.”

I used word-pairs that exist as oxymoron; literally subtracting one from the other, leaving an intersection that is both mysterious yet somehow familiar. I see this conflation of mutually exclusive sentiments as visual metaphor for the imperfect act of memory and struggle for empathy when faced with reconciling conflicting points of view.