Box 24: Bo(u)nd, 2014

This box contains process materials for Heather Doyle-Maier's installation-book "Bo(u)nd."

According to her website (https://www.heatherdoylemaier.com/galleries/books-in-installation/bound), bo(u)nd is an installation-book work that realizes the artist’s book on a large scale and in a larger exhibition arena. Both the installation and the book of Bo(u)nd reflect on the nature of marriage and long-term commitment: a pairing of individualities to form a “we,” and the resulting intimate and lifelong conversation. The book is constructed with a dos-a-dos (“back to back”) binding. Each book unit was created from a section of well-used bed linens of a married couple, with the stains, tears and holes the only visible “texts.” Individual units were prepared and bound in the studio, and then stitched together by hand in long groups. More than two dozen volunteers helped with the assembly. In its first installation appearance, the book encompassed 350 single units and stretched for more than 70 feet across the gallery. Starting at the east wall, the book extended under the double bed in the center of the gallery before turning upward to climb to the balcony, then climbed up a ladder and rose toward the skylight, losing substance and form until only feathers and gauze remained. Bo(u)nd features a vintage double-sized brass bed in the center of the gallery; its top mattress is slit down the middle. In the slit nest several hundred hand-washed eggshells; a coverlet of white, thin cotton with over 16,000 stitches covers the two sides of the bed. Intersecting with the bed and secured to the mattress by grommets with are a series of wall-mounted industrial cables.

Processing materials in this box include notes on the development of the artist's statement, notes on concept development, readings about the topic of couples, planning task lists and schedules, math/measurements on the installation, feedback and critiques, and labels that were on the cables.