Director’s Foreword

The work of Libby Wadsworth forms and informs a thought-provoking reflection on the operations of words, language, photographs, and the painted image. This publication documents and complements her exhibition of 2021 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art of the University of Oregon. Presented in our Artist Project Space, it encompasses painting, printmaking, photography, and letterpress works.

As she states in the interview published in this catalogue, Wadsworth deliberately keeps her work intimate in scale. Yet her art is rich in implications, conceptually canny, and deeply considered. Dissecting both words and images, her work both demands and rewards active intellectual engagement on the part of viewers. Equally, it engages the aesthetic and sensual receptors of the mind, offering subtle visual pleasures and depths.

My thanks to Libby Wadsworth for her active participation in the planning for this show, including its elegant layout in our galleries, and the time and thought she contributed to my interview with her.

My thanks also to the museum’s McCosh Curator, Danielle Knapp, for curating the show and attending to all aspects of its preparation. Thanks also to our installation crew, led by chief preparator Joey Capadona, and to Mike Bragg, the museum’s design services manager, for his work on this publication.

Finally, I’m happy to offer a salute to the museum’s former executive director, Jill Hartz, for originating this gratifying project previous to her retirement in 2019.

John S. Weber Executive Director