Cadetten-almanak 1904

This is the 'Cadetten-almanak', made in 1905. The approach to putting this Almanac together seems pretty formal, the way they've laid out the text, and the portrait included is very stately. There’s something about the texture of that aged paper that gets me, though. It is very tactile. You can tell it has been handled a lot, and it is almost like a conversation starter with the past. I imagine the pages are filled with notes, doodles, pressed flowers, all sorts of stuff. The ink of the text looks pretty consistent, but it is faded in places where it was handled. You can imagine someone underlining certain dates in the Almanac for important events that year. Thinking about this piece I'm reminded of Ed Ruscha’s artist books, but something like 'Every Building on the Sunset Strip'. Both are about cataloging, but in such different ways. One is about a regimented view of history, the other about a slice of everyday life. It makes you think how we view, remember, and categorize. There’s always room for interpretation.