Ariana Boussard-Reifel‘s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States. Most recently at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. She now lives and works in New York City.
Beneath the surface of this simple piece are layers of meaning. Superficially it is a cheaply printed paperback with the words removed. But with the additional knowledge that this book is a white supremacist bible and the words viciously and exactly describe the necessity of racial segregation, it becomes a quite plea for unification.
To express the futility of this discriminatory thought I imposed The Church’s own doctrine to RAHOWA. I essentially removed all of the black ink, left the white pages perfectly intact and consequently rendered the book meaningless. The resulting piece speaks to the need for contrast and diversity.
The making of this piece was, as you can imagine, simple but intense. It took a year of nearly daily sessions cutting out each word with and x-acto knife. I saved the words and present them alongside the book to act as a trace of the making as well as to note the contrast in color and purpose. This process for me became a meditation and an act of dedication to dismantling these hateful thoughts. The end result is a work, quietly beautiful, reminiscent of old-world lace work and ancient languages. Its meaning is found in its absences and its voids as much as in what remains.