Never Odd or Even
Barbara Bloom
Published by Carnegie Museum of Art, 1991, 22 leaves in a cardboard folder (colour & b/w ill.), 19.5 × 28 cm, English / German
Price: €55

A book inspired by Bloom’s installation at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Kunstverein München, and the Endlichkeit der Freiheit exhibition in post-wall Berlin. The title, Never Odd or Even, is a palindrome, which parallels the artist’s investigation into the workings of symmetry and order that occurs in nature (as with butterflies and twins) and in culture (the architecture of Chinese palaces, formal gardens, Palladio, and the Nazi structures of Albert Speer). Exploring both the beauty and the horror of the ordering principles of symmetry, Never Odd or Even contains some of Bloom’s most memorable discoveries (such as a photo of identical twins showing Johnny Carson their butterfly collection). A must for Nabokov fans, whose lepidopterist spirit is conjured throughout. Presented in the form of leaves which the reader must cut apart with a knife.

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