For the past four years, artist Tim Youd has traveled to cities throughout the world carrying famous novels, and the typewriters used to create them. Once there, he finds a public space that speaks to the author or the text, and begins to type. Youd's finished work is currently on display at Wake Forest University. Since early November, Youd has been busy typing a performance of The Land Breakers by Thomas Wolfe Prize-winning author and North Carolina native John Ehle.
On the walls of Hanes Art Gallery, two sheets of paper are neatly framed in black. One is ink soaked - an entire 500-page novel within its borders. It's completely blackened by the overlapping letters of a typewriter. The second sheet is battered and frayed as well, revealing thousands of distinct keystroke impressions left by the machine's constant hammering.
