Molly Springfield

Who is Molly Springfield?

Molly Springfield is an American artist whose work includes labor-intensive drawings of printed texts and visual explorations of the history of information technology. Springfield's art practice is unusual in that it combines meticulous, observational drawing with conceptual and historical investigations. Her drawings and installations are typically based on texts that reveal visionary moments in the history of how people experience, organize, and reproduce information. She is best known for delicate, faithful graphite-on-paper drawings of photocopied books.

Most recently, Springfield exhibited the "Marginalia Archive," an interactive installation that explores the relationships readers have with text. Her source material, contemporary examples of marginalia submitted by friends and viewers, is repurposed into a functioning archive that expands during the course of an exhibition. The project "extends her practice of drawing printed and handwritten text, and adds a social dimension" that "chimes with today's social media consciousness and with growing concern over what, in the way of participatory engagement, we will lose if the age of the book actually does come to an end."