Sarah Nicholls
Brooklyn, NY   

The McGinley Paper Company Sampler Book of Faults

$300

sanickels@hotmail.com           

www.sarahnicholls.com

Artist Statement

The McGinley Sample Book of Faults is a mock sample book that begins with the reality that goods are marketed to consumers as an expression of their individual personality, but only the palatable parts of personality, the parts we’re supposed to be proud of. The content of the book was generated through an anonymous poll and edited to form a concise community of behavioral patterns expressed as visual patterns. I write texts by moving back and forth between collecting found language and editing/rewriting and build up text that often deal with coping mechanisms, grief, self-help discourse, bodies of knowledge, and memory. I set and print my texts in lead type by hand, and am fascinated by the ritualized, physical nature of the activity.

I often use the authority of printed language to explore the comforts and limitations of community: what kinds of things bind people together, and why it is difficult to hold that in place. I produce works which take a long period of time to make, and which depend both on the accumulation of experience and the repetition of motion. I enjoy collections of images: pattern books, clip art files, digital archives, specimen books, and advertising collections. Collections are a physical remnant of a temporary, discrete body of knowledge.

Artist Biography

Sarah Nicholls produces books, prints, and works on paper, which revolve around the authority of printed language. For the past five years she has been the Programs Manager at the Center for Book Arts in New York City. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.