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Errata: Addition by Subtraction, (2021 - )

                                     

 ERRATA: Addition by Subtraction                                                               


Errata: Addition by Subtraction, is a parallel project to the larger Errata Community Project, both using as a point of departure the conscious omission of women artists in the early editions of H.W. Janson’s History of Art to address the mechanics of entrenched patriarchal inequities with regard to women's rights.

In Errata: Addition by Subtraction, the names of women artists are excluded and included simultaneously through the action of cutting their names from the pages of an early edition of H. W. Janson's book, The History of Art. The act of extracting their names emphasizes and parodies their original omission, “doubly” removing them from the text. However, with the same action, their names become part of the book, indelibly “carved” into the History of Art. 

The first intervention edition of Errata: Addition by Subtraction is dedicated to my Great Grandmother, Eda May Collier whose inspiration set me on a path to discover the work of other women artists.

Eda May Collier (1871-1969) was an artist, a landscape painter. She was captivated by the rugged landscapes in and around Glacier National Park, Montana. 
 
Eda May was born in Pennsylvania. After her parents were killed in an accident, she was adopted by the Calhoun family. In 1891, she married Charles Collier and they traveled west to make a home in Kalispell, Montana, where Charles worked for the railroad. Eda May gave birth to 10 children and even with the daunting task of raising such a large family; she found the time to paint. 
 
As a boy growing up, when I had the opportunity, I would study her painting. It inspired me. 

For the first edition of Errata: Addition by Subtraction, I selected a group of women artists born between the years 1871 (Eda May's birth year) and 1909...women artists who, because of their age and experience, could have been conceivably included in the research of the early editions of H. W. Janson's History of Art had they been considered as worthy candidates at the time.

 

—Davis Birks, 2021