Review: Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist's Book, by Anne M. Royston

Abstract

Book Review| June 01 2020 Review: Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist's Book, by Anne M. Royston Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist's Book by Anne M. Royston. MIT Press, 2019. 224 pp./$35.00 (hb). H. R. Buechler H. R. Buechler H. R. Buechler is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and founder of OXBLOOD Publishing. Her work is broadly concerned with historic and contemporary communication technology, classification, and the valorization of aesthetic objects. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Afterimage (2020) 47 (2): 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.472018 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation H. R. Buechler; Review: Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist's Book, by Anne M. Royston. Afterimage 1 June 2020; 47 (2): 97–103. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2020.472018 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAfterimage Search It is fitting to begin the review of a book whose argument rests on the potential for an artistic object to not just expound on, but perform as theory with the object of the text's genesis: Anne M. Royston's 2015 artist's book, The Fibrous Text. Royston cites her artist's book and its manifestation as full-length essay in the Journal of Artists' Books 38 (2015), as “seed” for her recent publication and subject of this review: Material Noise: Reading Theory as Artist's Book (2019). By synthesizing material form and content, The Fibrous Text emphasizes “connection and relation” over “depth and hierarchy” (110) to become a critically grounding and contextualizing body for understanding Material Noise and its main tenet, the “artistic argument.” The Fibrous Text consists of five signatures, pamphlet-stitched to a long piece of natural, unfinished cotton canvas. Five red lines are machine-sewn lengthwise across the canvas, each terminating just... You do not currently have access to this content.