Untitled Page (1991) / Untitled (1989) / Boole Edition (1990) / Pen Plotter
Untitled Page, Diamond Lake Apocalypse Series. Ink, paper, pen plotter. 61 x 50.8 cm. Untitled. Ink, paper, pen plotter, paintbrush. 61 x 101.6 cm. Boole Edition. Ink, paper, leather, pen plotter. 22.9 x 50.8 cm. Pen Plotter. Houston Instruments DMP-52 Multipen Plotter. 81.6 x 33.3 cm.
Since the early 1980s Roman Verostko has been producing work that involves the use of code in its production.
To describe this work, he has coined the term ‘algorist’ art, from ‘algorithm’, meaning a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or undertaking a task, used in computing to refer to programming routines.
He uses a plotter linked to a computer running his own software, which controls multiple pens and ink-loaded brushes, as in the example on display. The books from Verostko’s Boole Edition are a limited edition of George Boole’s An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities, one of the founding texts for symbolic logic.
They were pulled by hand at the St. Sebastian Press in Minneapolis in 1990. Each copy contains unique front and end pieces by Verostko, pen- and brush-plotted drawings executed in the artist’s studio, along with line-cut plates made from original pen plotted drawings.
