Traveling Images from Sebald’s Rings of Saturn
Images from W. G. Sebald’s Rings of Saturn, refashioned into traveling postcards.
Category: ICI Press
ICI Press publishes books that have been called “rhizomatic verbal-visual webs.” As multi-disciplinary projects, they actualize as much as they analyze the image/text paradigm. Bataille’s Eye (1997) explores Georges Bataille’s novella, Story of the Eye.Benjamin’s Blind Spot (2001) unpacks Walter Benjamin’s difficult concept of aura. Searching for Sebald (2007) looks at W. G. Sebald’s unique method of bringing word and image together and explores the far-reaching impact of his work on the world of art. ICI is currently working on a book that explores Roland Barthes’ last book, Camera Lucida.
ICI also publishes pamphlets, ethnographic studies, and limited artist editions/films. Many of our publications are unique, handmade objects that can be viewed in our library. In this portion of our website you’ll fine documents and ephemera linked to our various publications.
ICI Technic: Bricolage
Since many of us are trained artists, we are well-versed in the language of collage and have used its principles (along with its postmodern addendums) for many of our projects. In actuality, our recombination techniques have aligned more often with the methods of the bricoleur … Continue readingICI Technic: Bricolage
ICI Method: Copying
In art schools near and far, it is still a tradition for young artists to copy the masterworks of art history in oils on canvas. The comparable tradition has, for the most part, died out in the training grounds of literature, a trend that the ICI … Continue readingICI Method: Copying
LIBRARY SHELF: Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Ault, Julie; ed. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1991) ICI Shelf: Artist Monographs First Line: “I want to begin this book by telling you that I knew Felix Gonzalez-Torres well.” ICI History: Today at the ICI — Twitter Feed (12-02-12)
LIBRARY SHELF: Zona
Dyer, Geoff Zona (2012) LAST LINE: “her eyes, her watching eyes, and her face and head, resting on the table, watching us watching her, fading to black.” ICI SHELF: Barthes’ Tear ICI HISTORY: Today at the ICI-Twitter Feed (07-21-12)
To the Temple
This is a nondescript sign on a back road of East Anglia, England. But to anyone who has read W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, this sign might (and it does) announce the site of Alec Girrard’s model of the Temple of Jerusalem. Each … Continue readingTo the Temple
The Sign of the Masons
The main entrance of the Great Eastern Hotel in London offers a ‘sign’ that is hidden in plain sight. Even though it was left off the hotel’s official floorplan, three bricked in windows act as a visual sign for a Freemason’s temple built into the … Continue readingThe Sign of the Masons
This is Bedlam
A small plaque on the side of the Great Eastern Hotel in London marks the site of the old Bethlehem Hospital. The sign obscures the other name for the site. As W. G. Sebald schooled us in Austerlitz, at this same place, “the insane and … Continue readingThis is Bedlam
Max Sebald’s Signature
As a form of written language, the signature is, in theory, a symbolic sign. Its relationship to the person who creates it is arbitrary and based totally on convention and cultural practice. In reality, though, the signature is a very special form of written … Continue readingMax Sebald’s Signature
The Ur-Sign: a graveyard in East Anglia
The Greek word for ‘sign’ is sema, which is also the word for ‘grave.’ For the Greeks the grave was the ur-sign of signification for it ‘stood for’ what it ‘stood in.’ The sema points to something only present through its sign. For Adolf Loos, … Continue readingThe Ur-Sign: a graveyard in East Anglia