Jan Davis & Wilma Tabacco, VERTO, 2021, Linocut, woodblock with stamped text, 30 x 22 x 1.5 cm., unique state, SOLD.

VERTO; turning the plough pictures the passage of time. The turning of pages made from semi-transparent calligraphy paper activates the slow decay and diasappearance of the present as we know it, concurrently with an unveiling; either the distant past or a future to come.

Davis’ artists book practice exploring gardening as a seasonal inscription on the surface of the earth is paired here with Tabacco’s consideration of the way seismic events, wars or simply the passing of time alters the shape of space and place while preserving enough archaeological material to imagine what once may have been or what can be again. Despite decades-long art practices that differ in material usage, methodologies and iconography our ideas share much common ground. Our ground is the earth itself. To move through VERTO is to move through time.