Research Catalog

Title

As it were... so to speak : a museum collection in dialogue with Barbara Bloom.

Author

Bloom, Barbara, 1951-

Publication

• New Haven, CT : Yale University Press ; New York, NY : The Jewish Museum, [2015]
• ©2015

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.) host institution, organizer.

Description

141 pages : illustrations (some color), plans; 25 cm

Summary

The installations of the conceptual artist Barbara Bloom (b. 1951) have captivated audiences for decades. Since the 1970s, her work has consistently redefined the way in which viewers understand objects. Bloom siphons meaning from the things with which we surround ourselves, and crafts an experience that is at once personal and universal. In this beautiful artist's book, Bloom revisits her landmark 2013 solo exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York. The book features images of the museum's galleries reconstructed as rooms in a fictive house; the music room, the boudoir, the analyst's office; formed of objects from the permanent collection. These staged spaces are intertwined with fragments of text and images drawn from intellectuals, artists, and authors, both historical and contemporary. Ranging from the charming (Torah pointers tipped with tiny hands, poised above a piano keyboard; silver spice containers shaped like peaches and pears) to the poignant (an empty, worn velvet case for a shofar horn; a Nazi playing card created from a defaced Torah), each object is infused with profound significance. Exhibition: Jewish Museum, NYC, USA (5.3.-4.8.2013).

Alternative Title

Museum collection in dialogue with Barbara Bloom

Subject

• Bloom, Barbara, 1951-
• Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.) > Exhibitions
• Jewish Museum (New York, N.Y.)
• Judaism in art > Exhibitions
• Material culture in art > Exhibitions
• Judaism in art
• Material culture in art

Genre/Form

• Exhibition catalogs
• Illustrated works

Note

• This book has been published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name, organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, March 5-August 4, 2013.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Guests and hosts : invitation -- Doorways : eyes and dialogue -- Hidden cupboards : the unspeakable -- Piano : harmony/dissonance -- Drawers : traces -- Sitting room : time -- Window : synesthesia -- Library : reading/writing -- Bedroom : love -- Vanity table : luck -- Analyst's couch : circles of secrecy -- Dining table : toasts -- Mantel (reflected) : nested worlds -- Game table : parallel play -- Charity : forms of giving.

ISBN

• 9780300215731
• 0300215738

LCCN

^^2015940937

OCLC

909251671

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library