CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/20/2014

It Is Almost That: Ann Hamilton, Jane Hammond & Lisa Pearson, March 5 at the NYPL

Wednesday, March 5, from 6:30–8PM at the New York Public Library, artists Ann Hamilton and Jane Hammond converse with Siglio publisher Lisa Pearson about the myriad and fascinating ways in which their works and practices engage language and the literary. Both artists contributed works to It Is Almost That: A Collection of Image & Text Works by Women Artists & Writers, and the conversation begins by delving into those works, the shape of the stories they tell, and the process of "translating" them to be read and experienced on the page.

Detail from "Fallen" by Jane Hammond, 2003-2012, published in It Is Almost That.

Supremely imaginative in their use of word and image, the twenty-six hybrid works collected in It Is Almost That are steeped in narrative play and subversion, inviting readers to engage in multiple modes of reading. It Is Almost That (edited by Pearson, 2011) eschews traditional categories and instead creates a constellation in which unexpected connections can emerge. It features substantial excerpts or the works in their entirety—many previously unpublished or long out-of-print—by artists and writers including Eleanor Antin, Louise Bourgeois, Fiona Banner, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Bhanu Kapil, Adrian Piper, Charlotte Salomon, Hannah Weiner, and Unica Zürn.

Detail from "A Floating Weft," woven by Ann Hamilton, 2010, published in It Is Almost That.

"Because the frame is image + text, we’re reminded that all of us generally do more. Female artists don’t just stay in their disciplines; we experience, we forage, we play. Intuitively and practically speaking, It Is Almost That is, in effect, a handbook. It, by presenting female art history, shows us how to be an artist." —Eileen Myles

Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing at the event after the audience Q&A.