Conceptual artist Hanne Darboven lived an elusive life in her hometown of Hamburg, Germany, working obsessively to convey time and history through art, writing, and musical notation. Her days were consumed with the creation of mathematical calculations and systems, as well as a practice the artist termed “writing without describing,” a structured, repetitive, and sequential transcription of numbers, boxes, and wordless wavy lines that simulate cursive. In exhibitions, these identically framed written works systematically plaster gallery walls and are often accompanied by found imagery and objects collected and curated by the artist, including instruments, sculptures, mannequins, and even the artist’s taxidermied pet goat, Mickey.

–Carly Davis, from the Glenstone Field Guide