Luc Sante, Gilles Peress, Lawrence Weschler, and others respond to David Maisel’s stunning photographs of unclaimed remains from an Oregon psychiatric hospital in “Library of Dust,” an event organized by the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, on Monday, April 13, 7 p.m., at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts (172 Norfolk Street, below East Houston Street/between Essex and Suffolk Streets). The event, which will include an appearance by Maisel, is free and open to the public.
Luc Sante, Gilles Peress, Lawrence Weschler, and others respond to David Maisel’s stunning photographs of unclaimed remains from an Oregon psychiatric hospital in “Library of Dust,” an event organized by the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, on Monday, April 13, 7 p.m., at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts (172 Norfolk Street, below East Houston Street/between Essex and Suffolk Streets). The event, which will include an appearance by Maisel, is free and open to the public. For interviews, images, or further information about the event or the NYIH, please contact Stephanie Steiker at 212.998.2101 or nyih.info@nyu.edu.
Library of Dust (Chronicle Books, 2008), Maisel’s collection of photographs of canisters containing unclaimed remains of a patient from the psychiatric hospital where “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was filmed, was called “this year’s most haunting book of images” by the New York Times. Wired magazine saw the work as a “profoundly moving and quietly imposing monograph on loss.”
Among the 15 noted writers, artists, photojournalists, cultural historians, and critics who will respond to Maisel’s images at the April 13 event are: Ulrich Baer, a professor of German and comparative literature and vice provost for global programs and multiculturalism at NYU; Sarah Lawrence College Professor Rachel Cohen, author of A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists (1854-1967); Novelist Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude; Photojournalist Gilles Peress, whose work has appeared in Telex Iran, Farewell to Bosnia, The Silence (Rwanda), and Power In the Blood: Photographs of the North of Ireland; Essayist Luc Sante, whose published works include Low Life and Evidence; and Lawrence Weschler, director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU and artistic director of the Chicago Humanities Festival.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU was established in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, professionals, politicians, diplomats, writers, journalists, musicians, painters, and other artists in New York City—and between all of them and the city. It currently comprises 220 fellows. Throughout the year, the NYIH organizes numerous public events and symposia. For further information, visit www.nyih.as.nyu.edu or call 212.998.2101.