Penumbra Foundation is pleased to present Scene in a Library, a solo exhibition and publication by artist Mary Ellen Bartley. 

In 2019, Bartley spent six weeks at Penumbra making hundreds of prints, using a toner-based copier machine. All images were forged using the Taubman collection of 19th and early 20th century photographic manuals, treatises, and monographs, housed at the Foundation’s location in New York City.

In her image-making process, Mary Ellen Bartley playfully explored the possibilities that the surface of these historical objects offer, both visually and tactilely. The result, Scene in a Library, is a limited edition artist book containing 28 images in six leporello signatures, a fold out and a photogravure, presented in a foil stamped slipcase. The exhibition displays the publication in its entirety, a selection of copies that were not included in the publication, and a number of the actual volumes used to produce these works.

“Here, in your hands” writes art historian Kim Beil in her text, “is a book of books, an index, a codex. […] The photographs that last longest are the ones that are hidden from the light of day. They are pasted in albums or bound in books, like secrets. A photograph of a book is a question, whispered with exquisite patience.”