These books contain copies of the historical documents used for the exhibition's two works. One contains the copies of the microfilm of 19th century land deeds and trusts that were traced to make the tiled piece, and the other two contain reproductions of the letters and travel diaries of Thomas B. Eastland and Joseph Green Eastland as they traveled with Dow across the country. (The original documents currently reside in the collections of the California Historical Society. In keeping with the rest of the exhibition the original text from the 1800s has been presented intact to provide cultural context and to tell history with transparency, even though it is traumatic and harmful. Additionally, the QR code handouts provide digital access to these documents and additional primary resources I have uncovered in my research. By making the documents more accessible, the work invites more critique of the archive itself.

As writer and theorist Christina Sharpe says, “How does one memorialize chattel slavery and its afterlives, which are unfolding still? How do we memorialize an event that is still ongoing?”[1] This work is part of a larger, ongoing interrogation by artists and scholars into how American history is remembered.

Thank you to Lindsay Vance, Thomas Yi, Pierce Kandcer, Ella Marshall, and Philip Vittetoe for their assistance making these books.

 

[1] Sharpe, Christina Elizabeth. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke University Press. Pp. 20.