The Anthology

The Anthology is a single edition artist book that uses a 1955 View Master and custom design View Master reels to comment on the commodification of photography and the dissemination of information through stereoscopic media. A Victorian invention, stereoscopes were created to effectively make information available to the masses as in the case of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Popular themes of View Masters and stereoscopes included art, museums, and travel photography. The Anthology uses museological preservation materials to aid in preserving the vintage View Master that is a foothold in 1955. On the other hand, the custom, plastic View Master reels are rooted in 2025 and comment on the progression of consumerism into the media sphere of 2025.

Through the preservation of time and space, The Anthology uses the collection and curation of images to critique collection culture and consumerism. The photographs contained in the reels are images from an installation and performance, Of Light and Shadow, by the artist that critiqued the role of the photograph in a gallery context. The installation included dissected tea bags with inkjet printed images placed on glass, mounted with specimen pins and laminated plant specimens hung in an event tent. With this in mind, The Anthology comments on the permanence of the photograph in a digital media landscape through the materiality of plastic View Master reels in juxtaposition with vintage, paper View Master sleeves. The Anthology itself is an archive of mass consumerism and the preservation of collection culture.