"Sewing Every Line, Letter, And Illustration" (Hicks)

Common Threads Volume LIV [Composition]

By Candace Hicks

(2013)

Original hand-sewn artist's book, an intricately embroidered recreation of a traditional composition notebook and Volume 54 in Hicks's Common Threads project.

Fine.

Price: $5,000.00

Common Threads Volume LIV [Composition]

"No one else is reading the same books as me in the same order, so in a way, my reading is my life's work. The hand-stitched notebooks that I make recording the coincidences I uncover are a by-product of that process." — Hicks, 2022 interview

Subtitled "One Reader's Observations of Literary Coincidence," Hicks's ongoing Common Threads series has recorded recurrences of words, phrases, and motifs in unrelated books read in succession by the artist for two decades. The first coincidence in this volume involves the appearances of houndstooth coats in three novels (two are identified; one, Jonathan Lethem's DISSIDENT GARDENS, goes unnamed). The second "involved limpets." The houndstooth pattern is recreated in this volume's embroidered cover; the limpets are not. Booklyn, the artist-run nonprofit representing Hicks, writes: "We consider the entire Common Threads series from the perspective of literary-based conceptual art—it's a giant social sculpture fragmented across a network of libraries, museums, and private collections across the world." In her own artist's statement, Hicks notes: "Like the patterns on the covers of composition notebooks, patterns in fictional universes can go unnoticed without the care of sustained scrutiny. I just happen to be the one paying attention." A unique entry in one of the most enduring and original artist's book projects of the 21st century.

Read more: Beach, "Book Artist Candace Hicks Reimagines Notebook Paper with Needle and Thread;" Bell, "Taking Notes: An Interview with Candace Hicks;" Booklyn.org, "It's Raining Candace Hicks.

The Object

n.p. (Candace Hicks), (2013). 9'' x 7''. Original hand-embroidered houndstooth-patterned cloth with black canvas spine. [8] cloth pages, each with hand-stitched ruled lines and text.

The Fine Print

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