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Wendy Wahl
Encyclopedias have existed for around
2,000 years. From the specific to the gen-
eral, the encyclopedia can be described as
a summation of knowledge from a particu-
lar worldview. They have evolved consid-
erably over time in terms of style, cultural
perspective, purpose, contributors, au-
dience, and the technologies available for
their production and distribution. Twenty
years ago, Wendy Wahl noticed that the
printed and bound versions were being
disposed of at an alarming rate, and soon
after, most were no longer obtainable in
that format.With this realization, she be-
gan a series with a not-quite-natural tree
sculpture, Stand for Knowledge, followed
by several large-scale museum installa-
tions, three-dimensional sculptural works
like Rebound Overlap (Reading Between
the Lines) and an ongoing series of two-di-
mensional reliefs. The reasons she contin-
ues to use these materials in unusual ways
have remained the same: aesthetic quality,
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uniqueness, and the meanings that they carry. “Each
time I deconstruct a discarded encyclopedia book,”
Wahl says, “I revisit that which has come before, bound
in stillness, yet part of the present moment, asking me
to re-see in ways that engage my mind, body and spirit.”
47ww Rebound Overlap
1970 Encyclopedia Britannica pages, stainless steel
62” x 85”; 38” x 54”, 2025