Cover Story

Francis Cape, Cabinet 45, 2001. Photo Bill Orcutt. The front panel of this sculptural work commissioned for the fifth anniversaty of the magazine was printed on the front cover; a photograph of the back of the cabinet appeared on the back cover of the magazine. The magazine opened with the following quote from philosopher Vilém Flusser’s book In Praise of Superficiality: “What exactly do cabinetmakers do? They take a cabinet form (the idea of a cabinet) and force it upon a piece of amorphous wood. The trouble with this is that not only do they inform the wood (forcing it into the cabinet form), but they also deform the idea of a cabinet (locking it into the wood), the trouble being that it is impossible to make the ideal cabinet.”

The back of Francis Cape’s Cabinet 45, 2001. Photo Bill Orcutt.