Multiple Discovery occurs when innovations are made independently and simultaneously in different locations. In this project, a collective of five artists uses Multiple Discovery as a metaphor for our own remote, collaborative practice. Working with a common horizon line and color palette, we each developed imagery for this artist book in separate studios. Printed sheets were then exchanged in batches of ten. Individually, we wrote and printed text gathered from a shared collection of source material, then collated and folded our sheets into a unique set of ten copies. The resulting edition of fifty is made up of five variable sub-editions.

This project was initiated in 2019 and completed in 2022. We originally intended to stage variable collations and bindings of the book at public events in different locations, but shifted our plans after the onset of the pandemic. Instead, each of us contemplated and organized the same material privately in our own studios. The resulting editions speak to our shared but variable experience during a time of isolation.

Sources for text and imagery include:

Birkeland, Kristian. The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition 1902-1903. Norway: H. Aschelhoug & Company, 1908.

Lemley, Mark A. “The Myth of the Sole Inventor.” Michigan Law Review, Volume 110. Issue 5 (2012) pp 710-760.

Rovelli, Carlo. The Order of Time, New York: Riverhead Books, 2018.

Solnit, Rebecca. River of Shadows, Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, New York: Viking, 2003.

Some images are “From The New York Public Library,” public domain collections.