The World Through a Circle

Nancy Holt
ca. 1970
Typewriter ink on paper
11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm)

Sun, moon, water, sky, earth, star; these are the words that shape the circular component of Holt’s concrete poem. The poem alludes to the cosmos as it is contained by the various frames and reflections of the earth below, from the human eye, to a pool of water, to the lens of a camera. Human perception of the cosmos and its earthly accomplices are the driving force behind the larger part of Holt’s oeuvre. In this early work, Holt manages to fit her most influential concepts within the confines of a circle.

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