Encyclopedic: Weathered Volumes
Nanette Wylde with Kent Manske & time
The American Educator Encyclopedia was first published in 1919. It was discontinued in 1977. This ten volume set of encyclopedias was used by Kent in his youth from the mid 1960s to around 1978. In the late 90s Nanette turned the books into art objects, painting them pure white. After exhibiting them a few times she put them outside in the garden where they were left for several decades.
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At some point it was decided the books in the garden had reached an aesthetically pleasing degree of decay, needed rescue, and were brought indoors. In 2023 we determined it was time to document the books, thus, Encyclopedic: Weathered Volumes was photographed to create this conceptual body of work.
Series of 20 views presented as archival pigment prints on Arches88 in an edition of five each
Above: View 1–4
Above: View 5–8
Above: View 9–12
Above: View 13–16
Above: View 17–20
Exhibitions
Arion Press, San Francisco, September 2023
The Main Gallery, Menlo Park, California, January 2024
Art Bias, San Carlos, California, July 2024
Views 13, 14, 15, 16 framed in a single print
View 2 framed
Additional Exhibitions:
Rinconada Library, Palo Alto, California, October 2023
Books Undone 2: the art of altered books, The Gallery at Penn College, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 2024
Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, November 2024–January 2025