Martin Boyce

This work features a prayer sometimes embroidered and displayed in traditional American homes. The text, as discussed by Joan Didion in her classic book of essays The White Album (1979), evokes the sense of protection and security that for many Americans was shattered by the home invasions and murders perpetrated in 1969 by Charles Manson and his followers. Boyce’s placement of the house blessing within jagged lines resembling a broken window prompts a reflection on how familiar spaces can become compromised, strange, and even threatening.