line. letter. cool(u)r.

October 25 to November 25, 2012

Our November show continues our effort to collect, preserve & exhibit ephemeral printed material from the distant past, emphasizing visual connections between disparate & seemingly unrelated found materials. The show is comprised of Munsell Color Charts dating from 1915 & 1929, hand-colored sectional maps of New York City from a 1925 edition of the Land Book of the Borough of Manhattan & fabric sample sheets that represent a tabular survey of coal-tar colours & fabric dyes produced by Meister Lucius & Bruning in 1896. In each case, the original publications were found disbound & damaged, with several pages tattered, torn, damp-stained or missing altogether. In this, they are artifacts of broken, brittle & incomplete histories. Accordingly, the show is less about knowing the specific historical nuances of colorimetry, the chemical science of coal-tar dyes or the exact intersections of streets & avenues in New York City. Instead, the pieces in line. letter. colo(u)r., framed & deliberately arranged, invite us to dwell on the tactile & textural similarities of otherwise unrelated printed matter from almost a century ago. Comprised of gridded lines, text blocks, color chips, fabric samples & watercolor paste-overs, they remind us that the design & organization of information systems, despite their current pixelated state, are at root tactile & reward the simple act of intentional looking