John Cage's 640 numbers between 1 and 4: An assisted self-portrait

This artist’s book is based on “640 numbers between 1 and 4,” by John Cage. Cage’s original piece is a computer-generated, randomized sequence of numbers between 1 and 4 arranged in blocks of digits printed on a sheet of office paper. While planning how to transfigure Cage's work into book form, I thought: “Why not ask the numbers how *they* want to be represented?” And so the idea of this “assisted self-portrait” was born. Each step of the way, I asked the numbers questions like “How many verses should go on this page?” “How should they be printed?” “In what colors?” “In what quadrant of the page?” etc. As I used each number to answer a question, I ticked it off on my copy of Cage’s sheet. As with all artworks using chance methods, personal details still leaked in. Some of the collaged numbers are in my late father’s handwriting, and some were cut out of a Sesame Street book I learned to count from as a child. In both cases, I used those sources because Cage’s numbers selected them from my studio archive.