Catastrophic Geometries.

Chicago, Illinois:: Ann Tyler,, 2019.. Edition of 5. Four volume set in Slipcase. Books: each are casebound in linen bookcloth, hand-sewn, with gold foil-stamped title and volume number on spines. Each book 9.375"w x 12.125"h. Volume I: 90 pages; Volume II: 52; Volume III: 48; Volume IV: 32. Paper: MOAB Entrada Rag Natural 190gsm. End sheets: Fabriano Tiziano. Inkjet printing, graphite notations (Vol IV). Custom Slipcase: 9.5"deep x 12.5"h x 3.5"w, covered in bookcloth. Continuing her work on Syria (see Red Building, White Building, Execution Door, 2017/2018), Tyler's four-volume set explores the intricacies of capturing through visual means (say images from a satellite 500 miles above the earth) a situation that is removed not only in time and distance but also in terms of a cultural sense of acceptability and possibility. Abstract images extrapolated and manipulated examine atrocities (a cultural label or simple truth?) in elegant color forms abstracted from photographs smuggled out of Syria or from satellite images. Matters of perspective, experience, and expectation are everywhere involved. Volume I of the series begins with an epigraph (from the Center of Justice and Accountability) that looms over the entire production: "It is impossible to interrogate, torture, and kill tens of thousands of detainees without a system in place. "The "Geometries" of the title is telling. It points to the power and limits of modern-technology that can translate human experience into a numerical version. This allows us to see beyond the limits of our own eyes, but much is loss in the translation. We can see colors and shapes but may miss the humanity of corpses lying on a concrete floor.