All the Embarrassing Books (from Home-Decor Magazines), 2007
All the Embarrassing Books (from Home-Decor Magazines) are re-photographed details of bookcases in home-improvement and décor websites and magazines that have their books turned spine in. Only someone who is deeply embarrassed by the content of his or her books would turn them around this way – or, perhaps, these books have turned themselves this way because they are embarrassed by their owners. In the never-ending variety of perfectly appointed, vapidly flawless rooms in these virtual spaces, this refusal of content actually makes sense. Subservient to the decorative, these books have become nutrition-less, emptied of purpose and content, and erased of meaning - a sedated empty exchange which produces a valueless object from the apparition of an object of value.
Installation at Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, 2007.
All the Embarrassing Books (from Home-Decor Magazines) is part of the permanent collection at The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Credits (A Bibliography), 2007 is a compilation of the titles of the books on the bookshelves and coffee tables in home-improvement and décor websites and magazines that I used for my still images. Some of the titles appear more than once because the books are present more than once in different contexts – for example Leonardo da Vinci is in almost every living room… you will see him appear many times.