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Tauba Auerbach
Alphabetized Bible, 2006

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Alphabetized Bible
Artist name
Tauba Auerbach
Date created
2006
Classification
printed material
Medium
case bound book with offset printed pages
Dimensions
8 in. × 6 in. × 1 1/2 in. (20.32 cm × 15.24 cm × 3.81 cm)
Date acquired
2007
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Accessions Committee Fund purchase
Copyright
© Tauba Auerbach
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2007.7
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Why reorder the Bible?

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transcripts

JENNIFER DUNLOP FLETCHER: 

So the Tauba Auerbach piece, Alphabetized Bible, has reorganized the Holy Bible in alphabetical order by the letters. So its A, A, A, A, A; B, B, B, B, B. No words are legible. Its only a pattern of letters, in alphabetical order.  

 

NARRATOR:  

Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, curator of Architecture and Design, in conversation with Apsara di Quinzio 

 

APSARA DI QUINZIO: 

So you have this text that gets passed down. And its a sacred text that is very complicated. But it becomes abstracted over time. And the understanding of it evolves. And interpretation of the Bible is something thats constantly changing over time.  

 

DUNLOP FLETCHER: 

Language has a tendency to become invisible. So the notion that spoken words are invisible; and then once theyre written, theyre, you know, very visible and definitely interpreted as almost an object in themselves, and taken apart and put back together in many different ways. 

 

DI QUINZIO: 

There is a sort of order, a logic behind Taubas presentation. But its also highly abstracted. It doesnt actually make sense. You cant sit down and read the text. So thinking about this kind of threshold of legibility and illegibility. 

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