TOPO(LOG) TYPO(LOG)

The George Peabody Library
17 W. Mount Vernon Place
Baltimore, MD 21202

2015 / series of 6 books / materials include: linen, xylene monoprints, cyanotypes, digital archival prints, and found materials / each book measures 20" X 15"

Available upon request during the library’s open hours:
Tuesday to Thursday – 9 AM to 5 PM
Friday – 9 AM to 2 PM
Saturday – By Appointment

topo(log) typo(log) is a series of six books documenting my yearlong studio residency at the George Peabody Library. Emulating the Dewey Decimal system of relative location, each book embodies a level of the library: General Reference; Biography; History; Language, Literature, and Translation; Science and Art; Bibliography and Books about Books. Readers are invited to navigate through the pages as they would move through the cast-iron stacks and narrow passageways of the library’s interior.

Employing tasks common to a library of choosing, collecting, sorting, recording, transferring, scanning, and photocopying, I reinterpret the building’s contents to create an associative and accumulative narrative that is specific yet arbitrary, expansive yet fragmentary. Gathering imagery from a wide range of sources including 18th century encyclopedias, architectural protrusions, guided tours, insurance maps, office supplies, renovation remains, and an essay on clouds, I investigate the nature of work, the limitations of collective knowledge, and the poetics of place.

The six volumes have been acquired and cataloged by the George Peabody Library, becoming a part of the permanent collection. 

topo(log) typo(log) is made possible in part by a Rubys Artist Project Grant from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, books bound by Almanac Industries.

Images of opening reception in Bmoreart

Review by Michael Anthony Farley in ArtFCity

Review by Terence Hannum in Bmoreart.com

Review by Maura Callahan in Baltimore City Paper

Download the George Peabody Library Font

About the George Peabody Library

The George Peabody Library, formerly the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore, dates from the founding of the Peabody Institute in 1857. In that year, George Peabody, a Massachusetts-born philanthropist, dedicated the Peabody Institute to the citizens of Baltimore in appreciation of their “kindness and hospitality.” The Peabody Library building, which opened in 1878, was designed by Baltimore architect Edmund G. Lind, in collaboration with the first provost, Dr. Nathaniel H. Morison. Renowned for its striking architectural interior, the Peabody Stack Room contains five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies. The library collection contains over 300,000 volumes largely from the 18th and 19th centuries. Notable collection strengths are archaeology, British art and architecture, British and American history, biography, English and American literature, Romance languages and literature, Greek and Latin classics, history of science, geography, and exploration and travel including a large map collection. The George Peabody Library is now a part of the Special Collections Department of Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries. Maintaining the provisions of Mr. Peabody’s original gift, the George Peabody Library is a non-circulating collection open to the general public.