Rosa Barba Liberties, 2020
83 x 64 cm (framed)
Liberties (2020) is a sculptural elaboration of fragmented texts based on Susan Howe’s collection The Europe of Trusts, containing three of her books first published in the early 1980s: The Liberties, Pythagorean Silence, and Defenestration of Prague.
The work is a wax sculpture held in a wooden frame. The curved surface of the work transfers at some point from a smooth surface to a raised assembly of small letters and signs. The cast was made using movable type—that is, metal type pieces and typeset matter—used in mechanical printing presses.