University Libraries - Main Library Gallery

This exhibition commences with an artists’ book that urges visitors to ask themselves questions they might not have considered since childhood: what is a book? How do we use it? How do we receive the information it transmits between its makers and receivers? Chanccani Quipu reminds readers that there have been, and still are, many forms of writing in this hemisphere other than the alphabetic systems imported and imposed by European colonizers. The indigenous people of the Andes region used the quipu – a complex, multidimensional system of twisted and knotted cords – to record key information about their societies. The quipu is central to the Chilean-born Vicuña’s poetry, installations, films, and performances. Chanccani Quipu spans the gaps between media instituted by Western aesthetics: it is a poem, an installation, and a performance object that can be animated by those who view or speak the words “metaphorically” imprinted on the “river of fleece.” In the printed material, Vicuña and Rothenberg translate the Quechua chanccani as “begin now.” Vicuña writes that the book’s title “may be a command or a plea (depending on the tone of voice). It is a prayer for the rebirth of a way of writing with breath, a way of perceiving the body and the cosmos as a whole engaged in a continuous reciprocal exchange.”    

The sixteen holes in this book’s front cover reveal a latex sheet, which is itself perforated to expose the printed and hand-colored pages that feature the almost shockingly vibrant images and words drawn and painted by the illustrator, painter, and animator Henrik Drescher, as well as “ornamentalities” contributed by Lauren Drescher. Kelm’s innovative wire-edge binding, which enables readers to examine every bit of each sheet, impacts readers’ experience in an particularly strong manner here. In this non-narrative book, the sight, feel, and smell of each sheet constitutes a compelling story.