Dominique Hurth - Stutters

Rooted in the history of photography, this brilliant artist book questions through a meticulous visual montage, the historical construction of museum collections.

In 2014, the French artist Dominique Hurth discovered during her research four boxes filled with cyanotypes of Thomas W. Smillie, first custodian and curator of the Smithsonian's photographic collection until the beginning of the 20th century. From there, Hurth started reworking during several years the contents of these boxes into a new visual montage, sequencing these key images in the documentation of museum life and the construction of a “national” collection in the making.

Published by Printed Matter, the 364-pages book showcasing this monumental work unfolds photographs of empty storefronts and objects staged within the Smithsonian's collections, following divergent threads in the history of photography, exhibition and creation of collections. Through a meticulous process of Xerox images and printed reproductions, Stutters questions the taxonomy of the archive and quietly brings forward voices excluded from its history. Recommended.