REF Artist's Book by Shift-Lab
This piece is currently featured in MCBA’s Main Gallery as part of the exhibition “Shift-Lab: Ten Years of Collaboration”, and is featured in a special issue of The Fore Edge (March 2024), a quarterly newsletter from MCBA that highlights new artist’s books and zines for collections, universities, and libraries. If you are interested in receiving this newsletter, there is a sign up available here. Past featured pieces can be viewed here.
“REF is an investigation into the erosion of the physical reference area of the library, and the fundamental shift in the way we ask and answer questions. Reference sources evolved over hundreds of years to answer specific questions that have emerged as we have sought to engage with information. Atlases, chronologies, encyclopedias, directories, and related reference types satisfied a particular information-seeking method. Where? When? Who was responsible? What else was happening during this time? How was this accomplished? We have moved away from the use of these resources toward the use of keyword searches. As a result, we can access information with great speed but are losing the aspect of translation that enables us to seek nuanced answers to carefully posed questions.
Working together, members of the collective created fifteen responses to traditional reference texts using dates related to this transition as an organizational principle. Outcomes are housed together in a custom flip-top document box. As an organizing principle for the project, artists selected a set of dates related to the shift away from the use of physical reference texts toward our reliance on algorithmic relevance. References to these dates and events can be found in each component, alongside other themes related to mapping, information, and documentation. Printing methods include: letterpress, risograph, screenprinting, laser printing, and digital printing.”
PLEASE NOTE: This piece is currently on show. If ordered, item will be shipped after June 1st.
9” x 7” x 5” (Closed box)
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
Shift-lab is a collective of five artists who expand their studio practices to collaborate on artist books and multiples. Shift-lab is Katie Baldwin (Huntsville, AL); Denise Bookwalter (Tallahassee, FL); Sarah Bryant (Tuscaloosa, AL); Macy Chadwick (Petaluma, CA); and Tricia Treacy (Lebanon, NH). These women work from across the US to expand dialogue through exhibitions and projects investigating narrative, communication, and the book. Shift-lab continues to study the shift in contemporary perspectives relating to studio practice, collaboration, and both digital & analog experiences.
