Pillar of Salt
Books found on the streets and dedications torn from the same books, dimensions variable
This work has two elements: a stack of books, piled from floor to ceiling, and an array of torn pages—from the very same books—that feature dedications. The books, collected by the artist from the street, belong to a specific genre of Israeli patriotic literature: biographies of generals and politicians, albums celebrating military victories, and founding texts by figures such as Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, Shabtai Teveth, and Ezer Weizman. For many years, these books were given as presents at bar mitzvahs, military promotions, and other such commemorative events, and had an honorable place on Israelis’ bookshelves. They were often “enriched” by corny dedications, which are here isolated and highlighted. In piling the books, Littwitz followed the chronological order of the events they celebrate, but the pile’s top and bottom, like the capital and base of a column, have special importance. The “base” is a yizkor [ יזכור†, “remembrance” in Hebrew], a type of book commemorating a Jewish community destroyed during the Holocaust, and the “capital” is the Hebrew translation of Richard Laub and Olivier Boruchowitch’s 2010 book Israël, un avenir compromis [Israel, a Future in Doubt].