Harriet Bart
Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection
Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection is a comprehensive look at the prolific and dynamic career of this international feminist conceptual artist. The book, which accompanies the first retrospective exhibition of her work at the Weisman Art Museum in 2020, features poetry and prose contributions by significant writers, artists, and curators who have been influenced by her art.
Young women victims of a garment factory fire in New York in 1911. An autobiographical progression through stages of womanhood. American veterans killed in Iraq. A giant trough filled with books and surrounded by an urban cornfield. The subjects of Harriet Bart’s art are as varied as the media and genres in which she works—sculpture, installation, textiles, painting, drawing, artist’s books. Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection is a comprehensive look at the prolific and dynamic career of this international feminist conceptual artist. A founder of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM, a nationally recognized feminist art collective in the Twin Cities) and of the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art in Minneapolis, Bart has sought deep and evocative expressions of memory through several decades of innovative artistic creation and collaboration. This book, which accompanies the first retrospective exhibition of her work at the Weisman Art Museum in 2020, features poetry and prose contributions by significant writers, artists, and curators who have been influenced by her art.
Contributors: Betty Bright; Stephen Brown, Jewish Museum; Robert Cozzolino, Minneapolis Institute of Art; Elizabeth Erickson; Heather Everhart; Nor Hall; Matthea Harvey, Sarah Lawrence College; Joanna Inglot, Macalester College; Lyndel King, Weisman Art Museum; Eric Lorberer, Rain Taxi; Jim Moore, Hamline U; Diane Mullin, Weisman Art Museum; Samantha Rippner; Joan Rothfuss; John Schott; Sun Yung Shin; Susan Stewart, Princeton U.
CONTENTS
Director’s Foreword Lyndel King
this is indeed the place / with many layers
introduction by Laura Wertheim Joseph
The Geniza as a Process of Thought
Studio Photographs by John Schott
GENIZA
Vessels (containing)
Autobiography essay by Stephen Brown
Reliquary “Reliquiae,” Nor Hall
Museum
Lustral Bowl
Essential Kabbalah
The Book of Sand
Homage
Amulets (shielding)
Abracadabra Universe essay by Joanna Inglot
Shards “Talisman,” Susan Stewart
Without Words
The Words
Uninscribed Book
In the Presence of Absence
Strata: Tales of Power, The Invisible World
Garments (shrouding)
Processional essay by Robert Cozzolino
Penumbra “Penumbra,” Jim Moore
Ascension
Strong Silent Type I
The Collar
Effigy
Double Ode
Mirrors (reflecting)
Reflexions essay by Joan Rothfuss
Silhouette I–III “The Peace Work of Piecework,” Matthea Harvey
The Gaze
Remains of the Day
Genii Loci
Cento
Strong Silent Type II
Memorials (remembering)
Drawn in Smoke essay by Samantha Rippner
Drawn in Smoke “Edges Burned,” Eric Lorberer
Re-Marks (Memorial)
Requiem (Inscribing the Names: American Soldiers Killed in Iraq)
Caged History
Enduring Afghanistan
Garment Registry
Crossings
Tools (navigating)
Plumb Bob essay by Betty Bright
Elements “This Burnt Space,” Sun Yung Shin
Pendulum
Gutenberg Galaxy
Geography
Cultural Structures
Invisible Cities
Found Objects (transforming)
Forms of Recollection (Storied) essay by Diane Mullin
Remembrance: Florence “Travel,” Elizabeth Erickson
Notion
Concrete Poem
Ledger Domain
Altered Classics III: Tales from Shakespeare
Campaign Chest
Chronology Heather Everhart
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Gratitude
