a book filled with simple looping graphite lines

Works by Nancy Holt and Hanne Darboven on view in "Know" at Bodenrader in Chicago

Opening on April 12 in Chicago is the exhibition Know at Bodenrader, which features Nancy Holt's 1969 concrete poem Hammond and her 1973 grommet work Untitled . On view alongside with these two works by Holt is a hand-bound artist book by Hanne Darboven from the collection of Holt/Smithson Foundation.

One week after the passing of Holt’s husband Robert Smithson on July 20, 1973, Hanne Darboven sent Holt a hand-bound artist book composed of seven parts and filled with her characteristic wordless writing lines with this cursive dedication. The seven booklets are filled with regular, undulating writing drawings, reminiscent of children’s school exercises. The work Untitled (Wordless) is dated July 27, 1973 and personally dedicated to Nancy Holt. The last of the writing on the dedication page reads “wordless”. 

Little is known about their relationship, other than that they moved in the same artistic circles in New York City in the late 1960s. Untitled (Wordless) with its heartfelt inscription brings these groundbreaking artists together nearly half a century later.

Know pairs Holt and Darboven's work with works by Gerald Jackson, Alfred Jensen, Paul Neagu, William T. Wiley, and Terry Winters.

Learn more on the exhibition page and via the Bodenrader website.

Hanne Darboven, Untitled (Wordless) [detail] (1973)
7 booklets (210 pages in total)
Graphite pencil and felt tip pen on paper, bound (cord binding)
8 1/4 × 5 7/8 × 1 in. (21 × 14.8 × 2.5 cm)
Collection Holt/Smithson Foundation

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