The Fragment: An Incomplete History

by William Tronzo

Almost everything we know about the past comes from physical and narrative fragments. Yet a fragment is not simply the static part of a once-whole thing. It is itself something in motion over time, manifesting successively or variously as object, evidence, concept, and condition. The pieces gathered in this volume—written by scholars of art, art history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, numismatics, and film—investigate the significance of the fragment, whether received or created. Each essay offers a meditation on a distinctive moment in the history of the fragment, ranging from spolia in late antique architecture to the practice of collage in the modern period. Complementing these texts is a visual essay by the English sculptor and installation artist Cornelia Parker, whose oeuvre contemplates not only the power of relics but also the meaning conveyed by found objects made into art.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Yasaman Nozari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it during my two first years in my Master of Fine arts and it kinda shaped how I worked on my paintings

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of academic essays, some theoretical, on the fragment. Truthfully, I skipped the ones dealing with topics like archaeological reconstruction, etc., in favor of the more theoretical ones.