The Last Color, 2015
Hand-set metal type and two-color reduction woodcuts, bound in a modified flag book structure. 4 x 4 inches closed, 4 x 24 inches full accordion, edition of 80.
According to the theory of linguistic relativity and the hierarchy of color, almost all spoken languages evolve words for colors in a specific order. Almost universally, the word for the color blue is the last to develop. In fact, in many ancient texts, including The Odyssey, the word blue is nonexistent. Which means that poetry, particularly for such seafaring epics, is older than a word to describe the color of the sea.
The languages we speak and the words we know influence how we perceive the world. In The Last Color, I invite readers to contemplate this notion, and to wonder what it would be like to look at the ocean and not know the word for blue.
The variation on the flag book structure allows for a literal wave of paper to spill out of the book. This book was published during a Small Plates Residency for the San Francisco Center for the Book.
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