Mark making
I have taken a number of photographs of the marks on the documents and in the books I have been looking at.
Ownership, catalogue classification and references have been recorded in different ways over time, each offers a different aesthetic. The punched logo is my favorite by far but I can take an educated guess that this practice is no longer used. I always thought it was a shame when the library introduced automated book issue and stopped stamping books with return dates. The record of how many people have borrowed a book is no longer visually present.
Art practice takes me places I can never predict, admittedly seeing Horatio Nelson’s signature wasn’t on any to do list but nevertheless I felt very privileged as I unfolded a letter written by him and read its courteous content (about being offered the freedom of the city of Norwich) and viewed his beautiful handwriting and signature.
With this in mind I was looking through a copy of Creative Review the other day and found a rather wonderful project: Hand Written Letter Project, which is about just that, the importance of hand written letters in the age of digital communication. Check out the website for examples and if you want to send your own letter to the projects originator there is an opportunity to do so.
http://handwrittenletterproject.com/
I am being diligent and now have a recording method for information about each photograph I take, so I know which document the image is of. This will likely be very useful when I come to work on the final digital artwork that I will produce at the end of the residency.
