The Fragment - An Incomplete History

This is a thought-provoking collection of essays on art history and criticism - written by scholars from numerous disciplines. Almost everything we know about the past comes from physical and narrative fragments. Yet a fragment is not simply a static part of a once-whole thing. It is itself something in motion over time, manifesting successively as object, evidence, concept, and condition. This volume brings together a number of essays - written by scholars of the arts, art history, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, numismatics, and film - investigating the significance of the fragment. Each essay offers a meditation on a distinctive moment in the history of the fragment, ranging from spoila in late antique architecture to the practice of collage in the modern period. Complementing these is a visual essay by renowned English sculptor and installation artist Cornelia Parker, whose oeuvre contemplates not only the power of relics but also the meaning of found objects turned into art.