Recordings

by Gary Robbins

Recordings is a series of books that are the direct result of a physical interaction between the artist and the offset press. Colors are added to the press during printing following a predetermined “score.” The act of printing becomes an act of performance, and the book is the evidence of its occurrence. Recordings conflate books and sculpture. They use the machinery of mechanical reproduction to create visual records of specific, unrepeatable conditions of color and change.

Recordings editions are produced in sessions, with each session exploring further complications of the technique. Recordings reside in many revered collections and libaries, including the Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color at Yale University, and the Thomas J. Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.