A selection of dream epiphanies and reveries from Joseph Cornell's
voluminous diaries
Joseph Cornell is well known for the oneiric quality of his art and
films. Many have tried, often in vain, to put into words the strange
power of his boxes--toy-like constructions whose playfulness and humor
are anchored in a profound melancholy and loneliness. "Slot machines of
visions," said Octavio Paz. Cornell himself is said to have enjoyed
children's responses to his work; perhaps because nothing prepares one
better for viewing a Cornell box than having an unbiased mind. Catherine
Corman has combed through the voluminous diaries that Cornell kept
throughout his life, now in the care of the Smithsonian's Archives of
American Art, in search of the artist's own dreams. What she found are
brief flashes of images, and short, enigmatic narratives of
illumination--the verbal equivalent of Cornell boxes. In 1993, Mary Ann
Caws edited a large portion of Cornell's diaries for publication by
Thames & Hudson, an invaluable sourcebook for Cornell studies. This new,
shorter volume is a poetic addition to that literature, equally
indispensible to those interested in Cornell as it contains previously
unpublished writings, but also because it is as intriguing and
mysterious to the uninitiated as the magical boxes themselves.
