Rīvus: a glossary of water | 23rd Biennale of Sydney | Exhibition Catalogue

A Glossary of Water is a substantial publication presented as a companion to the 23rd Biennale of Sydney, titled rīvus. It is an artist book, a scholarly reference and a beautiful object. It was printed sustainably on excess paper stock of different types and weights from previous book projects, rather than recycled paper, giving the profile of the publication the look and feel of the sediment of the river.

This glossary invites creative submergences into water’s knotted and rippling figurative, material, and aesthetic modalities. An enticement to being in relation with water and with rivers through words and imaginings. It is not a collection of disparate “glosses” and explanations of obsolete words. As an aquatic artefact, it expresses intended meanings in terms of the nature of the entries it brings to print. While following an alphabetical order, the entries do not only inter-act among themselves as pre established terms that reflect on each other: they intra-act.

All chosen entries are continuously diffracting, swelling and waning in the vitality of water, its forces and sensualities, its chemistries and spirits. It offers one way to glimpse the rivers whose qualities and soundings we listen to in our human existence with and in water.

Edited by José Roca and Juan Francisco Salazar
Hardcover
572 pages