The structures that underlie racism and race (specifically as they exist in the United States) significantly informed my work in letterpress printing between 2016 and 2018. In Structure in White: Study, I collected the proofs and misprints I’d preserved from previously-completed projects (documented here, here, and here). I designed the cover and the binding structure in response to the amalgamation of these reused prints: excerpts of writings on the mechanics of racism from American author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates are rendered and then obliterated in white gouache on a light abaca paper—a surface that is more fragile than would typically be expected of a book cover. By holding this arrangement of disparate pieces, this book synthesizes and archives my attempts to learn about the relationship between whiteness and racism.
2018. Gouache on handmade abaca paper, waxed linen thread, leather, parchment, letterpress on various machine-made papers. Long and link stitch binding structure. 9” x 6” x 1¼”