Karen Shaw
Everything I Know About the Number 112 Linguistically Speaking: An Entymological* Collection

Above the stairwell, Karen Shaw placed a chart of numerical equivalences for the alphabet. Following this, words numerically equivalent to 112 were pinned down like insects under glass on a thin board which ran along the molding above the wainscoting of the gallery walls.

Excerpted from Brentano, R., & Savitt, M. (1981). 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street: History, artists & artworks. New York: New York University Press.

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT THE NUMBER 112 — LINGUISTICALLY SPEAKING:

Etymological
An Entomological Collection*

Statistical data and computerized assumptions define and constrict our existence in time and place. We are a benumbered people!

My resistance to this numbing numbering moves me to explore a humanistic evaluation of numbers, expanding the languages of mathematics into a personal literature.

In a process I call SUMMANTICS, I designate a numerical equivalent to each letter of the alphabet according to its position (A=1, B=2, C=3… Z = 26). A word is spelled out numerically and added to reach the sum of the word, e.g. eternally = 5 + 20 + 5 + 18 + 14 + 1 + 12 + +12 + 25 = 112, so does Stonehenge 19 + 20 + 15 + 14 + 5 + 8 + 5 = 14 + 7 +5 + 5 = 112 and Brooklyn 2 + 18 + 15 + 15 + 11 + 12 + 25 + 14.

For the installation at 112 Workshop I collected every word I knew that was the equivalent of 112 to form a word portrait of the space. I organized the over 200 words according to parts of speech. Nouns, proper and plural, verbs — past, present and future as well as adverbs, adjectives, infinitives, and present participles were included. These words were pinned down in individual boxes and labelled as if they were specimens. The installation was in part a pun on the words entomology and etymology as well as trying to pin language down.

The rows of these small pristine boxes along the perimeter of the space formed a strong contrast to the raw vast area that characterized 112 Greene Street.

*Entomology: The branch of Zoology that deals with insects.
Etymology: The account and analysis of a word.