EXHIBITION CATALOG FOR LINDA STEIN – 2000
SALLI ZIMMERMAN
Exhibition Curator, Firehouse Art Gallery, Nassau Community College
In her sculpture, Linda Stein is an archeologist of text, which for her represents a kind of fossilized civilization. She collects vestiges of the printing trades – copper, brass and magnesium plates of letter forms seen backwards, along with other found objects. She then refashions them into abstract shapes. While the narrative is reversed, and sometimes unreadable, the viewer participates in the pleasure of deciphering the words. These everyday artifacts are the raw material from which the sculptures are created. The text-encrusted surfaces prompt viewers to contemplate their own legends and origins.