Traces on the Hardway
My initial presentation idea for this body of work was that it should be in book form. However, the cost of scanning and digitally printing it as a book in the early 1990s was way too costly and cumbersome. So the exhibition prints were mounted on large sheets of Arches paper and hung on the walls. When I was making the digital prints for the Ice and Inca projects, I decided to also print the Traces on the Hardway in book form. 25 years after the initial book idea was formed, the technology, and especially the cost, had come down so that anyone could produce a book at home, easily.
The book is 24 inches high by 18.5 inch wide, closed, and opens to 36 inches. My goal was to make the pages somewhat reflect the size of the wall pieces, but still be a book that one could easily handle. I explored the look of turn-of-the-last century atlases so I could mimic, to a degree, that look with this book.
As you look through the digital version of Traces on the Hardway, you are looking at a two page spread. You may read the text by enlarging each page. You will see why most pages are small when you get to the two throw-outs.
To see one of the wall pieces installed, go to the next page. The panorama (far wall) of the spot where the columns for St. John the Divine were quarried is 18.5 feet long by 3.5 feet high. The throw-out in the book (in foreground) is nine feet wide, which limited a bit the final size of the book. It's not a book you can easily read in bed.
To see the digital book version of Traces on the Hardway -- click here