person reading a book titled "franjo" while resting the book on their knees.

Weekend Screening: Nancy Holt's "Bob with Books"

This weekend we continue with the fourth screening in our second season of Friday Films: Nancy Holt’s Bob with Books (1971).

In this 1971 film by Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson sits on the rooftop of 799 Greenwich St. in New York—the loft and studio space that the couple shared starting in 1963. In the opening shot of the film Smithson takes a sip of his Budweiser, then grabs a book from the tall stack to his left. After opening the book at random and reading for a moment with the book balanced on top of his knees, Smithson appears to lose interest in the book, sets it down to his right, and reaches for another. This cycle repeats itself for the duration of the three-minute film. Each time Smithson picks up a new book from the stack, Holt quickly zooms in on Smithson and the book before retreating when he sets the book down.

At the end of the film, Holt zooms in on the disheveled pile of discarded books. This chaotic pile of books manifests Smithson's interest in the accumulation of knowledge resembling geologic strata and the idea of the earth’s history and geology as a book out of order.  In his 1968 essay "Sedimentation of the Mind: Earth Projects," Smithson wrote "The strata of the Earth is a jumbled museum,” and two years later in the film Spiral Jetty (1970), Smithson narrates “The earth’s history seems at times like a story recorded in a book. Each page of which is torn into small pieces. Many of the pages and some of the pieces of each page are missing.”

Holt's direction and cinematography raises questions about scale and perspective; zooming into each book (or layer of knowledge) allows for concentration on one subject but also causes the viewer to lose focus on the scene at large.

Bob with Books is one of the five films included in the solo exhibition Hypothetical Islands at Marian Goodman Gallery London, which is the first solo exhibition of Smithson’s work in the UK. View the full schedule for Season 2 of Friday Films here.

This film will be available on Vimeo and InstagramTV from 12 p.m. Mountain Time on Friday, December 11 through to 12 p.m. Mountain Time on Monday, December 14. Click here to watch a video introduction to the film by Hikmet Loe, an artist, writer, and teacher who is the author of “The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson's Earthwork through Time and Place” (2017).

We hope you join us next week to watch the final film in Season 2 of Friday Films: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson's Mono Lake (1968/2004).

Still from Nancy Holt, Bob with Books (1971)
Roof of 799 Greenwich St., New York
Digitized 16mm film, color, silent
Duration: 2 minutes 59 seconds 

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York. Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Archived News

an image of a pipeline inside a gallery

Chapter Nine of Tuesday Texts

Throughout February 2026, we are publishing the ninth chapter of our Tuesday Text Series as part of our ongoing Scholarly Text Program, which invites thinkers to focus on a single artwork by Holt and/or Smithson. Developed as a tool for researchers at all stages, the Scholarly Text Program aims to publish two essays on each work, presenting differing opinions and approaches and drawing connections to topics that range from geology and ecology to poetry, architecture, public art, sculpture, drawing, film, philosophy, site, and

an image of a sign saying 'sun air'

Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles

What does it mean to notice how we see? "Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center at the Schindler House in Los Angeles offers an encounter where art and architecture shape perception together. This exhibition to brings Holt’s work into a responsive dialogue with the Schindler House, inviting visitors to experience art and architecture as partners in seeing.

a short typewritten text within a circle, with Nancy Holt's signature in the bottom right corner

Nancy Holt concrete poem on show in Paris at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles

Nancy Holt started making art in 1966, and her first works took the form of concrete poems: artworks testing the structure, content, and form of language. A key concrete poem, "The World Though a Circle 2," from 1972 is currently on show in the exhibition Deep Fields at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris until March 23, 2026.

a constellation of the big dipper made of fire pits

Nancy Holt's Starfire acquired by Powder Art Foundation

We are very pleased to share Nancy Holt’s 1986 sculpture "Starfire" has found a permanent home in the collection of Powder Art Foundation in Eden, Utah. Powder Art Foundation is an outdoor art museum that works closely with Dia Art Foundation. "Starfire" comprises eight pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. The flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky, bringing the energy of distant stars down to earth.

forthcoming

Holt artworks in "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Light was a constant source of fascination for Nancy Holt throughout her four decades of artmaking. Whether drawn from the stars or powered by electricity, she approached light as a phenomenon, an idea, and a material in itself. Three of her pivotal works investigating the perceptual qualities of light are featured in the exhibition "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany.

Robert Smithson looking at the camera from the back of a stationwagon loaded with rocks

Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson

In 1968 Robert Smithson declared: “A great artist can make art by simply casting a glance.” On show until January 20, "Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson" at Marian Goodman Gallery Los Angeles takes him at his word and invites eighteen artists to join Smithson on the floor as partners who resist, improvise, and extend the rhythm of his thinking.