Booklet

Reading The Key Essay 4 of 17

STERLING SILVER, COPPER, WORDS OF VICTORIAN AUTHOR
ETCHED, FABRICATED, OXIDIZED
HEIGHT: 1.5 INCHES

“Booklet” brings an essential form to Reading The Key. In jewelry scale, but not built with any mechanism for wearing on the body, this tiny sculptural piece is upon first examination a simple concept.

It mimics a book, without question. Yet, it cannot be opened.

“Booklet” presents a challenge to bookowners who are not readers. There are those who purchase, own, shelve, and dust books, but never actually read them.

Books bring a warmth to an environment. Just for the potential they represent, they are objects of beauty. But the value of a book as an object is truly based in the story it contains. The binding, the paper, the ink - all these will fail with time. But the story can go on forever.

What good is the book itself without discovering the message inside? To even press the challenge a little further, the artist etched text onto the exterior of the form, as a clue to the contents. But still, because no one is allowed to read inside, perhaps the viewer will consider story more valuable than book.