Category Archives: Marginalia

LIBRARY SHELF: Books, Boxes and Portfolios

Zeier, Franz Books, Boxes and Portfolios: Binding, Construction, and Design Step-by-Step (1983) FIRST LINE: “The steps described under this heading are not meant to be followed one by one.” ICI SHELF: Bookmaking ICI HISTORY: Today at the ICI-Twitter Feed (04-14-12)

Posted in Firsts, Library, Lists, Marginalia, Slips of the Ear, Tools + Arcana, Workroom | Leave a comment

LIBRARY SHELF: A Mapmaker’s Dream

Cowan, James A Mapmaker’s Dream: The Meditations of Fra Mauro, Cartographer to the Court of Venice (1996) FIRST LINE: “For some time I have wanted to relate a circumstance that has been happening to me in recent years.” ICI SHELF: … Continue reading

Posted in Firsts, Library, Marginalia, Phobias, Raw Material, Re-membering, Still Lies Quiet Truth, Thin End of the Wedge, This is Then | Leave a comment

LIBRARY SHELF: The Dictionary of Imaginary Places

Manguel, Alberto and Gianni Guadalupi The Dictionary of Imaginary Places (1999) FIRST LINE: “ABATON (from the Greek a, not; baino, I go), a town of changing location.” ICI SHELF: Language ICI HISTORY: Today at the ICI-Twitter Feed (03-27-12)

Posted in Books to inspire, Library, Lists, Marginalia, Raw Material, Thin End of the Wedge | Leave a comment

LIBRARY SHELF: The Politics of Vision

Nochlin, Linda The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society (1989) FIRST LINE: “Art Changes only through strong convictions, convictions strong enough to change society at the same time.” ICI SHELF: Art History ICI HISTORY: Today at the … Continue reading

Posted in Body as Sign, Hidden in Plain Sight, Image-text gaps, Library, Marginalia, Out, Still Lies Quiet Truth, That was Now, Who Decides | Leave a comment

Changed Priorities

Saussure tells us that no sign makes sense on its own but only in relation to other signs. The value of a sign is determined by the relationship between signs in the system as a whole. He notes the French … Continue reading

Posted in Field Work Document, Image-text gaps, Marginalia, Signs, Slips of the Eye | Tagged | Leave a comment

To the Temple

This is a nondescript sign on a back road of East Anglia, England. But to anyone who has read W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, this sign might (and it does) announce the site of Alec Girrard’s model of … Continue reading

Posted in Field Work Document, Hidden in Plain Site, Marginalia, Searching for Sebald, Sebaldiana, Signs, This Could be a Place of Historical Significance | Tagged | Leave a comment

This Could Be a Place of Historical Significance

In 1980, Braco Dimitrijević built an engraved slab into the pavement outside the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany. This photo was taken in January of 1992. Dimitrijević’s critique of history relies not only on language, the usual fodder of sign systems, … Continue reading

Posted in Dust, Field Work Document, Hidden in Plain Sight, Hidden in Plain Site, Marginalia, Re-membering, Seen in Plain Site, Signs, Slips of the Eye, This Could be a Place of Historical Significance, Who Decides | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Flowers at Chimayo

This permanent memorial at Chimayo, New Mexico evokes the language of the temporary roadside shrine.  The permanence of the ceramic calla lilies is undermined by a thin sheet of cellophane wrapped around the bouquet. Its haphazard embrace borrows the language … Continue reading

Posted in Dead, Field Work Document, Marginalia, Re-membering, Signs, Slips of the Eye, Things that Glisten | Tagged , | Leave a comment

This is Bedlam

A small plaque on the side of the Great Eastern Hotel in London marks the site of the old Bethlehem Hospital. The sign obscures the other name for the site. As W. G. Sebald schooled us in Austerlitz, at this … Continue reading

Posted in Collective Camouflage, Field Work Document, Hidden in Plain Sight, Hidden in Plain Site, Marginalia, Searching for Sebald, Signs, This Could be a Place of Historical Significance | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Red Hand

A red palm print near an otherwise immaculately maintained doorway in Santa Monica. It resists inclusion in the visual marginalia that defines most urban sites. The red palm is the sign of the gypsy, of the palm reader, of the … Continue reading

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