Sorted Books: What I Know About Magic
Conjuror’s Repository, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
“Sorted Books” is my longest ongoing project. It began in 1993 and has taken place on many different sites over the years, including in the private homes of friends, in rare book libraries, and in the archives of important literary figures. The process is the same in every case: I sort through a collection of books, make note of particular titles, and eventually group the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence. The final results are most often shown as photographs of the book clusters, but on occasion, I exhibit the grouped books themselves. Taken as a whole, the clusters are a cross-section of that library's holdings that function as a kind of portrait.
The H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana, held in the John Hay Library at Brown, is one of the preeminent private collections of magic in the world. It was bequeathed to the university by Smith (Class of 1930), who performed magic to help pay for his tuition at Brown. While the Smith Magic Objects Collection includes a great variety of items, from homemade props and wands to coins and commemorative Houdini busts, I worked with the collection’s immense number of books—over 5,000—and created twenty photographs, twelve of which were chosen for display on campus at Friedman Hall.
To create the What I Know About Magic series, I made in-depth visits over the course of several years to familiarize herself with the collection. The books in the H. Adrian Smith Collection were fascinating historically, but also aesthetically: there were thick, gilded, leather-bound volumes from the late 19th century as well as slim paper booklets from the 1940s and 50s that provided instructions on how to perform just one trick. Magicians seem to be particularly playful in their use of language for the titles of their publications, and since my project focuses so much on language, it was utterly delightful to respond to these authors’ linguistic tricks with a few of my own.
A Few Of Robinson's New Ideas, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
Bargain Magic, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
Card Miracles, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
Classical Foursome, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 26 inches.
Easy Magic For Evening Parties, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 26 inches.
Eye-Openers, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
Great Italian Wizard Before Queen Victoria, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.
Great Magic, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 26 inches.
Holiday Frolics, from the series What I Know About Magic, 2022, from the project “Sorted Books,” 1993 and ongoing. Digital chromogenic prints, 12.5 × 19 inches.