we think of ourselves by buzz spectorBuzz Spector’s About the Author, Praise for the Calligrapher, we think of ourselves as having high moral standards, and not even / a tailor can alter are created from collaged dust jackets on handmade paper. Of his work, Spector has said, “I tear things up… and stack things up… On occasion I cut printed papers up and paste some pieces back down.” This basic description of his process belies the sensitivity to materials and the precision of language which mark Spector’s work, but it is telling of something more significant: the elegance of an allusive concept articulated simply and exactly.

In this series, Spector uses an obvious trick, isolating a particular repeated element to create visual poems. The dust jacket, an ephemeral wrapper created not by the book’s author, becomes metonymy for the object we actually spend time with, the book itself. Through the act of removing certain repetitive phrases, Spector illuminates how the casual use of language slips between the absurd and the poetic.  

About the Artist

A native of Chicago, Buzz Spector currently serves as Professor of Art at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, he has been on the faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Spector is an internationally known artist and critic who uses sculpture, works on paper, book arts, printmaking, and installation to explore themes of perception, memory, and collective history. Spector’s work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. He is the author of two books, Buzzwords (2012) and The Book Maker’s Desire (1994). Spector is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including three fellowships from the National Foundation for the Arts (1991, 1985, and 1982) and the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2013.

praise for the calligrapher by Buzz SpectorAbout the Author by Buzz Spectornot even a tailor can alter by Buzz Spector

UAG

Contact Information

University Art Gallery
Indiana State University
Landini Center for Performing & Fine Arts, 105
300 N 7th St.
Terre Haute, IN 47809

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Telephone:
812.237.3720

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