Curator

  • Art Institute Chicago
  • Harvard art museum
  • My Exhibition
A work made of a multiple consisting of 128 books, 5 packing cartons, 1 table and 1 bookmark.

Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film

1991

Allen Ruppersberg American, born 1944

United States

Interested in notions of collection and consumption, Allen Ruppersberg reconsiders texts, songs, narratives, photographs, and memorabilia culled from American vernacular culture. Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film is an installation that mimics a publisher’s remainders display in a bookstore. The artist manipulated the presentation in provocative ways: inserting fictional titles and authors onto book covers; printing the back covers and inside jacket flaps of each book with the entire screenplay of a 1960s educational film that warns of the dangers of hallucinogenic drugs; and inserting into each book a series of full-page, black-and-white stills from the artist’s film archive. Installed in a museum setting, the texts become a sculptural work that is seen instead of read.

A multiple consisting of 128 books, 5 packing cartons, 1 table and 1 bookmark

Contemporary Art