Jefferson's Bible, 2016-2023

 

"When you cut into the present the future leaks out," wrote William S. Burroughs. So what happens with the past?

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For years I have been cutting into daily news and images from the New York Times, collaging a continuous scroll from physical fragments of the newspaper. This work is inspired by what I believe to be the earliest American cut-paper project: Jefferson's Bible. Thomas Jefferson, late in life and in secret, took a knife to the New Testament. He cut and pasted a version that kept only the rational and plausible stories, leaving out what he considered the irrational bits. The marginal stories I feel more connected to were removed, creating a divided world. My work pays homage to the fragments left on Jefferson's cutting room floor, reimagining them as a founding text that continues to shape the American landscape.

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I work on sections of newspaper collage for months, sometimes years, until a passage makes sense or is destroyed altogether. Then I digitally scan the newsprint and translate it section by section into CMYK silkscreen paintings on linen. Scaling these paintings to the dimensions of my body achieves a concrete dialogue with a mutable present and an imagined past. This process allows me to physically and conceptually engage in a broad expanse of time much longer than my own lifetime.

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See also: “Using Collage to Rearrange Historical Narratives”, Interview with Anton Ginzburg. BOMB Magazine, September 20, 2023. [Link]