Incidents on a Page: Illustrated Texts on Art, 1971-2026 is a snapshot of nearly six decades of work, including images of artworks, selections from artist bookworks, broadsides, ephemera, and excerpts of published writings and correspondence. The twenty panels comprising Incidents on a Page illustrate the relevant technologies and expressive resources drawn from graphic design and typography defining the visual culture of my artistic practice.
The typographic picture — another convention appearing throughout this work — is also related to the legacy of early printing and graphic design. The term typographic picture refers to the use of text to compose abstract or figurative images. Examples of this practice are found globally in many cultures and historical periods, such as the calligraphic art of Islam, the Concrete Poetry of early 20th century Modernists, and in works by contemporary artists and graphic designers.
Incidents on a Page is principally, but not exclusively, an index of the themes that have animated my practice. It is also synoptic of the many ways in which the forms and mediums drawn from art, typography and graphic design have served as an aesthetic framework for my art and writing. From another perspective, it is obvious that the very existence of my art and writing was dependent upon my experience working intermittently as a typesetter and graphic designer during the period of 1977 to 1990. Consequently, Incidents on a Page symbolizes art’s inclusion within visual culture as a whole, while celebrating the artifice and labor embodied in typography and graphic design.
Michael Corris 