New York-based contemporary artist Erica Baum creates "subliminal narratives" using found words and images from paperback books, card catalogues, and paper rolls from player pianos, among other literary artifacts. Baum will give a talk about her work, which draws inspiration from contemporary artists who utilize text, such as Ed Ruscha and Lawrence Weiner, along with documentary-style photographers such as Walker Evans and Eugène Atget. With experience in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, and poetry, Baum views text and language as physical objects—malleable mediums that can shape new associations and stir moods, with the re-authoring of commonly consumed words and images. Nat Trotman, an associate curator at the Guggenheim Museum, wrote of Baum's work in Aperture magazine's "Lit." issue: "Through these open-ended investigations Baum honors the tradition of print—that textured, tangible objectification of language that inexorably fades with each passing year."

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2016-May-23]