Untitled (top secret book and military telephones) c. 1950

Curator: Jack Gould’s "Untitled (top secret book and military telephones)," part of the Harvard Art Museums collection, presents a chilling tableau of the Cold War era. Its compact size belies the weighty implications it carries. Editor: It's like a still life…but with the potential for instant global catastrophe lurking beneath the surface. The colors are strangely muted, almost bureaucratic. Curator: Precisely. The image engages with the military-industrial complex, revealing its bureaucratic face and raising questions about the banality of institutional violence. The composition seems almost clinical, yet deeply unsettling. Editor: I find myself wondering who held those phones, what those conversations were about. It’s a slice of history, frozen in time, but still radiating a nervous tension. Curator: This work invites us to consider how power operates through systems and technologies, shaping our world in profound and often unseen ways. Editor: Yeah, it’s a stark reminder that even the most mundane objects can be tied to the most terrifying possibilities.