Book - Collective Memory

Brooklyn, New York: Fargo Books, 2012. Edition of 10.

6 x 7.5 x 6.5" hinged Buckram-covered box handmade by Brooklyn-based Talas with the title die-stamped on cover. This customized box has separate sections/compartments for 4x6 cards, magnetized steel clips, and a DVD.

Sheryl Oring: "The Collective Memory box functions as a portable exhibition based on the 2011 public performance of the same name held in Bryant Park, New York City, on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. Published in 2012 in an edition of 10, each box contains 315 digitally printed index cards with messages dictated during the Collective Memory performances held on September 9, 10, and 11, 2011. A pool of ten typists set up a public typing pool in the park and invited passersby to answer the question: What would you like the world to remember about 9/11? Answers were typed verbatim on blank 4x6" index cards, with participants adding rubber-stamp messages to each card. The cards were subsequently exhibited at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC.

The book was discussed by Julie Garcia at the Library of Congress in a talk called "Individual Response/Collective Tragedy: An Examination of Artists' Books Responding to the Terrorist Attacks of 9-11." The talk examinef the array of book artist responses to the events of September 11, 2001. The segment on this book begins at 29 minutes on this video.

"Each box contains:
1) a hand-typed and artist-signed introduction
2) 315 4x6 index cards with messages typed during performances at New York’s Bryant Park
3) 315 steel clips for display of the cards
4) a DVD with a 7-minute video documenting the performances"

Sold by Vamp and Tramp.

Collectors include: The Library of Congress; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Utah and Baylor University.