Scope and Contents

Peter H Barnett: Can you tell me how what you are doing now is to do something philosophical? (Assembling Press, 1980) consists of handwritten philosophical questions arranged four to a page. Each page has a rectangular cutout of a quarter, a horizontal half page or a vertical half-page, allowing the questions to be seen in continually changing groups and associations. The title expresses the theme: what would it mean to act philosophically, or to take a philosophical initiative? -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Book has opposite spiral spines so that pages interleave.Peter H. Barnett: Reciprocal Encoding-Decoding Construction (hand drawn numbered limited edition, 1981-1983) is made of two spiral-bound sketch pads bonded together and cut down to 14" square. The result is a book with bindings on either side and a stiffened middle. There are 12 pages attached to each binding. The principal graphic element, which supports the textual elements, is a sequence of triangular cutouts within circles. The cut-out pages mesh together on either side of the core, and texts written across the edges of the cutouts become legible in sequence as the pages are meshed. As the pages mesh and the designs and texts on one side of the book become legible, the designs and texts on the other side are decomposed. The meshing and unmeshing of pages by the interactive reader, together with the composition and decomposition of design and text, articulates the title Reciprocal Encoding Decoding Construction ,...

Scope and Contents Peter H Barnett: Time Trap (Assembling Press, 1980) is composed of twelve 8 1/2" by 12" sheets folded and stapled in booklet form. A loop of thread connects the midpoint of each page. The work explores various dimensions of the book form through four series of diagrams accompanied by texts and instructions. These graphic-textual progressions migrate over the outer margin of adjacent pages, through the gutter on the inside of a folded sheet, through the gutter on the outside of a folded sheet, or across the gutter from one page to the next. Three of the graphic progressions are v-forms which narrow and elongate as they migrate. The fourth is a string of numbers 1-12. The texts associated with each progression express attitudes of waiting, disorientation and entrapment. The four progressions are all there at once, but never meet: only one progression can be pursued by the interactive reader at a time, hence the title. The accompanying introduction, "Open Structure for a...

Scope and Contents Peter H Barnett: Time Trap (Assembling Press, 1980) is composed of twelve 8 1/2" by 12" sheets folded and stapled in booklet form. A loop of thread connects the midpoint of each page. The work explores various dimensions of the book form through four series of diagrams accompanied by texts and instructions. These graphic-textual progressions migrate over the outer margin of adjacent pages, through the gutter on the inside of a folded sheet, through the gutter on the outside of a folded sheet, or across the gutter from one page to the next. Three of the graphic progressions are v-forms which narrow and elongate as they migrate. The fourth is a string of numbers 1-12. The texts associated with each progression express attitudes of waiting, disorientation and entrapment. The four progressions are all there at once, but never meet: only one progression can be pursued by the interactive reader at a time, hence the title. The accompanying introduction, "Open Structure for a...