Slide Images

1 - Sefer No. 60, 2001
Steel, glass, bronze, book, organic material
1311 x 67.2 x 61 cm (with stand)
51.5 x 26.5 x 24 in

2 - Sefer No. 58, 2002
Steel, glass, bronze, shell
122 x 45.7 x 67.3 cm (with stand)
48 x 18 x 26.5 in

3 - Sefer No. 62, 2001
Steel, glass, stone
131 x 67.2 x 61 cm (with stand)
51.5 x 26.5 x 24 in

4 - Sefer No. 63, 2003
Steel, glass, book, graphite, organic material
101.7 x 46 x 63 cm (with stand)
44 x 18.25 x 24.75 in

Sefer Series

Sefer No. 60, 2001 / Sefer No. 58, 2002 / Sefer No. 62, 2001 / Sefer No. 63, 2003

Sefer means book in Hebrew. Books are a repository of knowledge, experience and expression. In this series a symbiotic and symbolic relationship occurs between two elements.

In this series, a symbiotic and symbolic relationship occurs between two elements. For example, in Sefer No. 60, 2000, a glass panel separates two elements; on one side, a bronze cast of a stone, on the other, an open book with an empty page. While the glass panel separates the two elements, it actually brings them together, allowing one to reflect into the other: The book becomes part of the cast stone, and the stone becomes part of the book. The reflection appears and disappears as you walk around the sculpture.

"Oui, c’est une sorte de paradoxe étrange que plus un livre est silencieux, plus il est livre. Chaque livre est au fond toujours un peu un livre du silence. Comme cela d’ailleurs si voit dans tous les livres : prenez n’importe lequel et gommez ce qui est écrit, vous trouverez toujours en-dessous des mots des pages blanches de silence. C’est sur les livres du silence que tout livre s’imprime.

Mais ces livres du silence, sont-ils déjà effaces, ou encore a venir?"

“Yes, it’s kind of a strange paradox that a book is silent, the more it is a book. To some degree each book is essentially always a book of silence, as can incidentally be seen in all books: take any one and erase its contents; underneath the words you will always find white pages of silence. Each book is printed on a book of silence.

But these books of silence, are they already erased, or is that still to come?”

Gérard Wajcman, Sylvia Safdie Autres territoires Centre culturel Canadien,Paris, 2000., pg.71 (English reanslation) Pg. 27, French version), 2000