What is America is an artist book, created using offset lithography on Finch Opaque Paper (Cover and Text) with an accompanying CD, for the installation Letters to the Editor in the “Kunst Vault” gallery at Pyramid’s Silver Spring location. The book contains images of street signs, storefront windows, hanging plates, walls, mailboxes, and more, photographed along a three-block stretch of Georgia Avenue, a main commercial street in Silver Spring, Maryland. The CD includes moving, provocative statements and drawings left by visitors to the exhibit and an audio tape with bilingual interviews from individuals the artist met while walking and photographing. The installation explored the premise that America’s identity hinges on the use of only one language. Assisted by high school students from Frederick, Maryland, Barbosa came to Silver Spring to photograph words found throughout the community and record the voices of those who live among these words. The artist found a diverse and vibrant place unlike the one described in the letter to the editor that set off the exploration.

The book is included in following collections: Special Collections, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Digital Collections, Chicago, IL; Carl A. Kroch Library, Rare and Manuscripts Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY; Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; The New York Public Library, New York, NY; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; and Coleção Moraes Barbosa, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

Learn more about the artist:
www.americansforthearts.org/users/5190