Employing text to reveal her own perception of the limitations of words, Claudia Goulette creates remarkable ink drawings of fragmented and indecipherable words that evoke the frustration of Jorge Luis Borges’ the Library of Babel while they celebrate the elegance of the handwritten word. Meticulously rewriting passages from her journals, Goulette creates seductive ink patterns of interwoven letterforms that conceal her intimate thoughts.
Her words are elongated, compressed and otherwise obscured such that only fragments of intelligible characters remain. Unlike the medieval monks who carefully transcribed and preserved precious manuscripts, Goulette’s own obsessive rewritings all but obliterate the previous text, rendering it impenetrable. Stunning documents of rigorous labor and the passage of time, Goulette’s drawings reveal a passion for writing and express frustration with the boundaries of language.
Irene Hofmann, Curator,
Ambiguous Signifiers–the Drawings of Claudia Goulette,
Cranbrook Art Museum
