Science and the Artist's Book
An exhibition by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries and
the Washington Project for the Arts
Aeronautics
Herald of Science
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Wilbur Wright
"Some Aeronautical Experiments" in Western Society of Engineers
Chicago, 1901
In this article, Wilbur Wright offered the first description
of the Wright brothers' experimental flights at Kitty Hawk and
Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, beginning in 1900. There on the
sand dunes of the Carolina coast, as buzzards and eagles soared
nearby for inspiration, Wilbur and Orville Wright tested their
flying machines and worked to solve the scientific problems of
sustained powered flight.
Artist's Book
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John Wood
Bird Wing and Plain Planes
Baltimore, Maryland, 1994
[color laser copies, laser prints, paste paper, board, thread]
John Wood's interest in the Wright brothers stems from his
childhood in North Carolina and his experiences as a pilot in
World War II. In producing these two books, Wood has begun to
explore the computer as a means of generating images of imaginary
birds, wings, and planes. Emulating the modest presentation of
Wilbur Wright's 1901 article, Wood uses simple scanned images,
laser prints, and color photocopies of the Kitty Hawk landscape.
