The Exhibition Catalogue Awards for 1997

Abstract

Once a year, shortly after the autumnal equinox, several heavy parcels emanate from some location in the United States. They separate and begin crisscrossing the country by fits and starts, describing meaningless patterns on the map like a bored cat playing with an Etch-a-Sketch. At intervals, one of a band of initiates intercepts a box, studies its contents, seals it back up, and sends it on its way again. Months later, in the coldest part of the year (and often in the coldest part of the country), this small society gathers for a ritual that no outsider has ever viewed. . . .