featured exhibition
Approximate Exactitude: The Diagram and the Book
Reception: Thursday, March 19, Emporium Gallery Entry Showcase, 6pm-9pm
Curated by Sarah Smith
The Emporium Arts Center Entry Showcase
March 6-29, 2015, Reception: Thursday, March 18, 6pm-9pm
On some level throughout history, books have represented authority, knowledge and information. We have trusted and disputed them for centuries. Now, with changes in technology and with the speed and amount of information we receive everyday, our relationship with the book is changing. Perhaps we’re looking to digest our information from books faster now. No matter what the book, many of us tend flip to the photos, illustrations or diagrams, to see if we can understand the text quicker or easier. Sometimes the diagrams augment the text and our understanding of its concepts, sometimes diagrams cannot be understood without the text and vise-versa. Other times the diagrams add very little to the text and instead obfuscate the communication of the book’s ideas. Whichever way the diagram works with the text, it almost always draws us in with its promise of knowledge and its dry beauty. The books in this show make use of, celebrate, occasionally spoof and often times elevate the significance of the diagram as an element of the book.
