Disposable

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Emilio Pucci, New York
1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - McCreedy & Schreiber, New York
ca. 1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Scribner Book Stores, New-York
ca. 1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - B, Altman & Co, New York
ca. 1972
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Brentano's Literary Emporium, New York
ca. 1975
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Henri Bendel, New York
ca. 1975
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Abercrombie & Fitch, New York
1979
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Chanel, New York
1979
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Book Bar Inc, Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York
ca. 1980
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Halston, New York
ca. 1980
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Barnes & Noble Bookstore, New York
1986
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Conran's, New York
1987
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Booksellers Row, Chicago
1987
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Oshkosh, New York
ca. 1990
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Knoll Textiles, New York
ca. 1990
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Lord & Taylor, New York
ca. 1995
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Tiffany & Co, New York
ca. 2015
offset-print on paper bag
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

from Hell Gate

    Once he looked, and halted straight,

Set his back against the gate,

Caught his musket to his chin,

While the hive of hell within

Sent abroad a seething hum

As of towns whose king is come

Leading conquest home from far

And the captives of his war,

And the car of triumph waits,

And they open wide the gates.

But across the entry barred

Straddled the revolted guard,

Weaponed and accoutred well

From the arsenals of hell;

And beside him, sick and white,

Sin to left and Death to right

Turned a countenance of fear

On the flaming mutineer.

Over us the darkness bowed,

And the anger in the cloud

Clenched the lightning for the stroke;

But the traitor musket spoke.

    And the hollowness of hell

Sounded as its master fell,

And the mourning echo rolled

Ruin through his kingdom old.

Tyranny and terror flown

Left a pair of friends alone,

And beneath the nether sky

All that stirred was he and I.

    Silent, nothing found to say, 

We began the backward way;

And the ebbing lustre died

From the soldier at my side,

As in all his spruce attire

Failed the everlasting fire.

Midmost of the homeward track

Once we listened and looked back;

But the city, dusk and mute, 

Slept, and there was no pursuit.

– A.E. Housman (1922)

Visual Relics (1985-1986)

Mimmo Jodice
Cleopatra as painted by Artemisia Gentileschi
1985
C-print
Yale University Art Gallery

Nat Finkelstein
Marhahn N.Y.C.
1985
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

William Christenberry
Flowers and Porch near Morgan Springs, Alabama
1985
C-print
Yale University Art Gallery

Leon Levinstein
Man in Surf
ca. 1985
gelatin silver print
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Don Worth
Carnations, Mill Valley, California
1986
C-print
Yale University Art Gallery

Sheila Metzner
Uma, Patou Dress
(fashion shot)
1986
Fresson print
Yale University Art Gallery

Lourdes Grobet
Untitled (Cactus painted Red/Yellow)
ca. 1986
C-print
Brooklyn Museum

Roberto Soncin Gerometta
Vogalonga, Venice
1986
C-print
Yale University Art Gallery

Ralph Gibson
Untitled
1986
gelatin silver print
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Adam Fuss
Untitled
1986
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anne Ferran
Scenes on the Nature of Death III
1986
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Seymour Edelstein
Book-Seller, Lower East Side, Manhattan
1986
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Mariette Pathy Allen
At the National Academy of Design
1986
gelatin silver print
Brooklyn Museum

Michael Kenna
Power Station Study 6, Chapel Cross (Dumfries, Scotland)
1986
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

Robert Mapplethorpe
Thomas (Back)
1986
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Bruce Weber
NYC Studio
1986
gelatin silver print
Yale University Art Gallery

But even then the savage wife of Jove

was well embarked upon the air, returning

from Argos, city of Inachus; even

from Sicily's Pachynus, far away, 

across the sky she spied the glad Aeneas

and all his Dardan fleet. She sees them building 

their houses, settling on the land, deserting

their ships. Her grief is sharp; she cannot move.

– Juno abominates the sight of Aeneas in Italy, from Book VII of Virgil's Aeneid, translated by Allen Mandelbaum (1971)

Debra Heimerdinger
Untitled #40
1986
C-print
Yale University Art Gallery

Visual Relics (1928-1930)

Man Ray
Nancy Cunard
1928
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Margaret Bourke-White
Garden of Mrs Homer H. Johnson
ca. 1928
gelatin silver print
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Margaret Bourke-White
Plow Blades, Oliver Chilled Plow Company
1929
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Eugen Wiškovský
Untitled (Shirt Collars)
ca. 1929
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Emil Otto Hoppé
Foyles Booksellers, London
1929
gelatin silver print
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Edward Steichen
Helen Wills
1929
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

George Hurrell
Norma Shearer
1929
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Lotte Stam-Beese
Katt Both
ca. 1929
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Léonard Misonne
Pied de Géants
1929
bromoil print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Charles Sheeler
Chartres - Buttresses from the South Porch
1929
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Albert Renger-Patzsch
Untitled
ca. 1929
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Berenice Abbott
Cherry Street, New York City
1930
gelatin silver print
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Claude Cahun
Aveux Non Avenus
1930
platinum print (photo-collage)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Claude Cahun
Aveux Non Avenus
1930
platinum print (photo-collage)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous Photographer
Women in Top Hats behind Bride
ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Baron Adolf De Meyer
Maria, Duchesse de Gramont
ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Tract

I will teach you               my townspeople
how to perform                a funeral –
for you have it               over a troop
of artists –
unless one should               scour the world –
you have the ground sense               necessary.

See! the hearse leads.
I begin with               a design for a hearse.
For Christ's sake               not black –
nor white either –               and not polished!
Let it be weathered –               like a farm wagon –
with gilt wheels               (this could be
applied fresh               at small expense)
or no wheels at all:
a rough dray to               drag over the ground.

Knock the glass out!
My God – glass,               my townspeople!
For what purpose?               Is it for the dead
to look out or               for us to see
how well he is housed               or to see
the flowers or               the lack of them –
or what?
To keep the rain               and snow from him?
He will have a               heavier rain soon:
pebbles and dirt               and what not.
Let there be no glass –
and no upholstery               phew!
and no little               brass rollers
and small easy wheels               on the bottom –
my townspeople               what are you thinking of?

A rough               plain hearse then
with gilt wheels               and no top at all.
On this               the coffin lies
by its own weight.

               No wreathes please –
especially no               hot house flowers.
Some common memento               is better,
something he prized               and is known by:
his old clothes –               a few books perhaps –
God knows what!               You realize
how we are               about these things
my townspeople –
something will be found –               anything
even flowers               if he had come to that.
So much for               the hearse.

For heaven's sake though               see to the driver!
Take off               the silk hat! In fact
that's no place               at all for him –
up there               unceremoniously
dragging our friend out               to his own dignity!
Bring him down –               bring him down!
Low and inconspicuous!               I'd not have him ride
on the wagon at all –               damn him –
the undertaker's               understrapper!
Let him hold               the reins
and walk               at the side
and inconspicuously               too!

Then briefly               as to yourselves:
Walk behind –               as they do in France,
seventh class, or               if you ride
Hell take curtains!               Go with some show
of inconvenience;               sit openly –
to the weather               as to grief.
Or do you think               you can shut grief in?
What – from us?               We who have perhaps
nothing to lose?               Share with us
share with us –               it will be money
in your pockets.
                                    Go now
I think you are               ready.

– William Carlos Williams (1923)