outside of the cigar box

well, the last post got me thinking about joseph cornell (again!), so i dug out a very yellowed treasure - an issue of dance index he designed. it seems from the introduction that he contributed to a lot of issues; but i've no idea how many he did the complete design on. this issue, titled "clowns, elephants, and ballerinas", is from 1946.

in the introduction, lincoln kirstein says, "mr. cornell has a very special gift; the energy for collection, juxtaposition, and contrast. for him the inconsequential past is neither frivolous nor dead."

i'd like to think this blog might also contain such a gift (although at times it might also reluctantly embrace the inconsequential present...). cornell's work with dance index seems a kind of a precursor to a zine (which is perhaps a kind of a precursor to a blog) - he's not, as usual, taking his collection of images out of their respective cigar boxes in the basement and turning them into collages and objects - he's sharing them as they are; re-organizing them and creating connective tissue where he finds it. here's a few pages... as always click and see bigger.