Roni Horn: Seizure of Hope

Roni Horn transforms comedian Maria Bamford’s phrase, "I am paralyzed with hope," into a powerful examination of language and emotion in her latest artist’s book.

American artist Roni Horn’s practice is propelled by a multifaceted investigation into the nature of identity, mutability, and language. Encompassing drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and artist’s books, her work frequently involves the written word. Seizure of Hope is the eighth installment in a series of artist’s books by Horn and the fourth to be published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers, following celebrated titles such as bird (2008), aka (2010), and Wit’s End (2021). This meticulously designed, limited-edition publication collects a series of drawings that were inspired by a line from a monologue by the American comedian Maria Bamford: “I am paralyzed with hope.” Horn felt that the statement, which she describes as “at once a silent and insidious undercurrent and an endless scream,” resonated with contemporary anxieties, and she began to write and rewrite it, drawing over the words with a wax crayon that caused their letters to bleed. Making use of numerous gatefolds to reproduce the artist’s expansive, multi-sheet drawings in precise detail, Seizure of Hope is a spectacular record of Horn’s arresting meditation on language, emotion, and the nature of hope.