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 this work, he injected a note of humor, chuckling at the idea that all of human thought could be contained in this single volume.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- Abelardo Morell
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Title
- Thought
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- Made 2001
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Medium
- Gelatin silver print
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Edition
- 6 of 30
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Dimensions
- Image: 45.5 × 57 cm (17 15/16 × 22 1/2 in.); Paper: 50.5 × 61 cm (19 15/16 × 24 1/16 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser
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Reference Number
- 2014.1222
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Copyright
- © Abelardo Morell, courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.