Sign Patterns 1974 Two of nine pages (originally produced as an artist's book). Type on paper, each 11 x 8.5 inches.

In the summer of 1974 I hammered out nine pages of keyboard signs on a small Olivetti manual typewriter, one sign per page: seven punctuation marks, a plus sign, and the letter x. I typed each sign one at a time in single spaced rows over and over until a block or pattern of signs was completed. The work, an experiment finished over the course of a couple of days, was motivated by the idea that such signs constituted readymade material that could be repurposed in a primarily optical way. A fundamental notion of making (and marking) is brought to the fore in Sign Patterns through the repetitive typing or riveting of single signs. The sign patterns might be viewed as 'mechanical drawings,' which, in addition to their optical effects, are also evidence of the process of typing, making each pattern as a whole, a sign.