Walls Paper

Gordon Matta-Clark used a variety of mediums including photography, film, and drawings throughout his artistic career. In some of his work he also referenced techniques and interests that he learned and developed while studying architecture, as can be seen in Walls Paper. This artist’s book of 72 photolithographic prints explores how systemic and structural factors—like urban decay, the housing crisis, and municipal disinvestment—enable buildings to deteriorate. The book contains reproductions of photo-silkscreened prints that featured in Matta-Clark’s installation from the year prior—also called Walls Paper—which was displayed only once before it was destroyed. The prints depict the skeletal interior walls of dilapidated housing projects in the Bronx and Lower East Side in New York City that were either set for demolition or had already collapsed. The book is split through the center horizontally, allowing those who interact with it to create unique arrangements with variable combinations of the top and bottom halves of the images.