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It Was Much Pleasanter at Home

A work made of gelatin silver print.
© Abelardo Morell, courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

1998

Artist:

Abelardo Morell
American, born Cuba 1948

About this artwork

Abelardo Morell’s series on books depicts them simultaneously as conveyors of information and as palpable, even multisensory, objects. In 1995 he accepted a position as artist-in-residence at the Boston Athenaeum, an independent library and museum that was founded in 1807. “One of the big pleasures of this project has come from spending a good amount of time looking at, holding, smelling, and reading a terrific number of skinny, fat, tall, pompous, modest, funny, sad, proud, injured, and radiant books,” he later wrote. Recognizing that the physical features of books affect our perception of their contents, Morell transformed these humble, familiar things in ways that continue to occupy him to this day. In 1996 Morell was invited to make illustrations for a new edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He cut out copies of John Tenniel’s original 1865 illustrations and photographed the two-dimensional figures as if alive and at play in a landscape of three-dimensional books, merging the real and the imagined.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Abelardo Morell

Title

It Was Much Pleasanter at Home

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1998

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, lower left, in graphite: "ABELARDO MORELL"; inscribed verso, lower right, in graphite: "IT WAS MUCH PLEASANTER AT HOME, 1998 / #10/30"

Dimensions

Image: 57 × 45.8 cm (22 1/2 × 18 1/16 in.); Paper: 60.7 × 51 cm (23 15/16 × 20 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund

Reference Number

2001.66

Copyright

© Abelardo Morell, courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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