Glass Book Sculptures

“Faculty Exhibit”, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Mi. 1999 “Heaven, Earth, Water, Fire”, Alma College, Alma Mi. 2015 The first Glass Books, "Leaving the Time Before Language", 1999, were an exploration of how language operates. One can't return to the time before language, so in these books language traps the child. One can only chase around chaotic letters hoping to decipher Lacan's ideas. The Glass Books from 2015 create the universe depicted in the poem by 16th century Sufi poet Kabir, "Between the Conscious and the Unconscious". In it, "...the mind has put a swing...all earth creatures...sway between these two trees, and it never winds down."

"Leaving the Time Before Language", 1999

glass, press-type, acetate, tape

quotes from Jacques Lacan

"Between the Conscious and the Unconscious...", 2015

glass, ink, acetates, tape

quotes from poem below, by Kabir

"Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing:
all earth creatures, even the supernovas, sway between these two trees,
and it never winds down.

Angels, animals, humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon;
ages go by, and it goes on.

Everything is swinging: heaven, earth, water, fire,
and the secret one slowly growing a body.
Kabir saw that for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life."