American artist Joseph Cornell was a major innovator of assemblage. An avid collector, he acquired thousands of ephemeral objects from bookstores, antique fairs, libraries, and other sources, incorporating many of these into his signature shadowboxes. Carefully arranged, the boxes reflect the varied interests of the artist and suggest poetic, sometimes surreal associations between the items found therein. Cornell believed his works were based on everyday experiences, in what he described as “the beauty of the commonplace.”

–From the Glenstone Field Guide