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Holographic artists
Susan Gamble and Michael Wenyon join in a great tradition as artists in residence
at the Boston Athenæum: In 1817 young Horatio Greenough used to sketch in the
library, and went on to become the first professional sculptor in America. Wenyon
and Gamble have made holograms of a variety of books from the Athenæum's stacks.
Their show, titled ''Bibliomancy'' (the word refers to the act of using a passage
chosen at random from a book to provide enlightenment), reflects on the life of books
as objects, as repositories of knowledge, and as reflections of history.
The gallery has been painted blue, the better to show off the holograms' eerie glow.
Holograms of card catalogs hover on two side walls, but the main event is a series
of 54 holograms of the spines of Athenæum books running across the main gallery
wall. The titles are varied: ''The San Francisco Social Register,'' ''The Love Affairs
of Mary, Queen of Scots,'' ''Essays Moral and Polite.'' Each is a document of its
era, all the more dear for its oddity today. The wall reads like a piano keyboard
of ideas, passions, and stories, ready to play a different song at whim - which is
indeed what a library is.
''Bibliomancy,'' for all its technical razzmatazz, is a quiet show, and a substantive
one. |
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This story
ran on page E03 of the Boston Globe on 04/16/98
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company |
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