…Perhaps They Were Periods of Peace: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books by Miranda Maher, is on view until April 16th.

New York-based visual artist Miranda Maher has self-published a dozen artists’ books over the past 25 years under her imprint Horse in a Storm Press. Maher’s work is largely interested in how–taken collectively–instances of conflict or aggression can be distilled down and newly understood. It asks of us: How are these moments processed? What is the power of standing witness to the violence done between people (and who, after all, gets seen)? In re-documenting the sites and circumstance of recorded violence –whether that be in rape statistics from the FBI database, or source material tracking across 2000 years of warfare – there is something to be gleaned in the sheer volume of the tally her works keep. The artworks, as Maher acknowledges, may not prevent or deter violence, but the simple act of registering these moments, of taking stock, and being witness to it front-on is difficult work as well.