Children's Stories and 'Child-Time' in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde

Focusing on his evocative and profound references to children and their stories Children's Stories and 'Child-Time' in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the Transatlantic Avant-Garde studies the relationship between the artist's work on childhood and his search for a transfigured concept of time. This study also situates Cornell and his art in the broader context of the transatlantic avant-garde of the 1930s and 40s. Analisa Leppanen-Guerra explores the children's stories that Cornell perceived as fundamental in order to unpack the dense network of associations in his under-studied multimedia works. Moving away from the usual focus on his box constructions the author directs her attention to Cornell's film and theater scenarios 'explorations' 'dossiers' and book-objects. One highlight of this study is a work that may well be the first artist's book of its kind and has only been exhibited twice: Untitled (Journal d'Agriculture Pratique) presented as Cornell's enigmatic tribute to Lewis Carroll's Alice books.