Reading Our Remains is a collection of over 130 altered books designed for and first exhibited at the University of Arizona Library.

In the library, one expects knowledge to be conveyed in certain ways; we understand how to enter into the text of a book through the author’s thoughts or points of view. Similarly, when going to a historical museum, one expects to be presented both with the evidence of the historical object, as well as the curator’s interpretation of the information contained within the displayed objects. Both experiences, of the library and museum, present fact through the filter of a human author or curator. In Reading Our Remains, the mediating presence of the artist is introduced to give new life and new form to old books—books which now resemble old life and the history of forms from the earth. Fact and fiction mingle as the standard book becomes the unexpected: a diversity of forms reflects the variety of subject matter contained within.