Hoard: The Ethics of Acquisition (2010) is a unique Artist’s Book and a reconfiguration of 20 archaeological reports from the library collections at SOAS University of London. A second edition of Hoard was published in 2012, produced and circulated as an open edition using print-on-demand. The open edition (available here) was first published for the London Art Book Fair 2012, Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Hoard is part of a body of work which examines pressing questions central to collecting practices and modes of display prevalent in European museums, specifically related to contested artefacts (i.e. illegally obtained and looted). Hoard interrogates archaeology’s material and ideological practices. The book is densely populated with images of 700+ archaeological sites. All scientific information is suppressed and important source text, annotated photographs, artefacts and people are excluded from this re-composed, re-published edition. This process of clearing reflects archaeological methods of site analysis and excavation, resulting in empty landscapes and negative spaces. Through the process of sourcing and scanning images the library becomes a looted site.

The bookwork is featured in the article ‘Re-Imagining Archival Evidence’ written by Liz Orton, published in Trigger magazine ‘Uncertainty’, FOMU, Belgium (Nov 2020). Read here.

Hoard: The Ethics of Acquisition (2012)
Open edition, print on demand
272pp., 210 x 290mm
Digital printing, b&w images
£20

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Hoard: The Ethics of Acquisition (2012) POD from Kate Morrell on Vimeo.