I have been pondering various ways to approach Anna Virnich’s work in a text, but none of them seemed to offer a natural fit. While talking with her, I realized that I had considered probably as many angles as she had tested ways to present her pieces in this catalogue. The questions raised by the conception of the publication echoed those that emerged while trying to put her work into words. Just as the format of the book could potentially reduce her practice to pieces of fabric stretched on frames, the words shiny, matt, loose or tense didn’t seem sufficient to convey to the reader an idea of her works’ appearance. Photo­ graphic reproductions could eventually render the direct experience of her fabric pieces more precisely – although even this is questionable in Virnich’s case.

Going through the pages of her book, there is a sense of loss, an impression of missing the point. The images of her fabric pieces point up to full effect the distortion that occurs in the process of reproducing an artwork. Turning one page after the other, the altera­ tions vary, but the gap between the artworks and their reproductions is always perceptible. The transfer of the materiality of an artwork onto a page results in a compromise. Take this idea to its extreme, and it is possible to say that what this book contains are not Virnich’s works – in fact, the reproductions can be seen as two­dimensional interpretations. (…)

Fanny Gonella – THE FULL PICTURE