In 2002, Spector was invited by the College Art Association (CAA) to contribute an editioned work to their ongoing series of commissioned artists' prints, benefitting CAA's Professional Development Fellowship Program. The edition was produced at Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. Spector worked with master papermaker Anne Q. McKeown, who acquainted him with the papermaking facility and showed him drawers full of handmade paper art and paper samples. One piece in particular caught his eye: a sheet of paper made of layered strips of overbeaten abaca and overbeaten linen, in which lengths of string had been embedded and then torn out after the sheet was dry. The pulled string created torn edges in the paper strips that resembled the torn pages of Spector's altered books. Almost all of the works in this show utilize this "drawing" technique of removing string which he laid in the form of words and phrases between a backing sheet of cotton and a translucent layer of abaca or linen. Spector describes the removal of the string as "the equivalent of a failed erasure; that is, the sign of an attempt to obliterate elements of a text which, because we recognize the residue of that gesture, calls extra attention to those words. The ruptured surface left behind from pulling the string still spells out those portions of the text, but the absence of the string (understood as such in relation to the other string that spells out words elsewhere in the work) suggests an affect that has been withdrawn." New Paperworks by Buzz Spector helen hiebert buzz spector "Actual Words of Art, new work on/of paper" at the Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon August 4–27, 2005 A Puzzle, 2003, 35 - x 44 - inches framed, abaca with yarn. Published by Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper in an edition of 5. All photos courtesy of Alysia Duckler Gallery, Portland, Oregon. Spector is interested in how the excised text conceptually enriches the phrase. He says "the distressed surfaces of these words bring an aspect of ruins to view, as if some larger meaning once inhabited these phrases, making them now less empty than emptied of a value we can be certain they once possessed. As in all the art I make, this evocation of emptying out operates as the source of its visual fascination." As for the text Spector embeds, many are quotes from writers, indicated by a "font" change and the appearance of authors' names underneath the phrases in brackets, often seen when an author is quoted in print. Some of the works are made up of two sheets of paper side by side, resembling a page spread in a book. No words are capitalized, so the texts read as excerpts. In one quote, the text – "a fragment" – is ripped away, and the rest of the text – "torn from its context / from movement – \[Debord\]" – remains in the sheet, literally describing what is happening to the text through the pulling of the string. Several of the pieces employ only white or gray string, but some include a playful use of color. And sometimes, when the string has not been pulled out of the paper, its tail is left dangling at the end of words or phrases, tempting the viewer to give it a little tug. Spector's larger works vary in size between 35 - x 44 . inches to 41 x 59 - inches. While they took up much of the wall space in the gallery, there was one wall filled with smaller 11 - x 9 inch pulp paintings. More like studies, these pieces all contain words paying homage to writers such as John Cage, Vladimir Nabokov, James Joyce, and Italo Calvino. Spector used children's magnetic letters as a block-out tool in order to pulp paint and play with the names of these writers. In his tribute to Cage, Spector used an anagrammatic structure – spelling out Cage's name four times and mixing up the letters (CAGE, AGEC, GECA, ECAG). He clearly had fun thinking about these and playing with the words. In another piece entitled Kristeva, the familiar abbreviation "ie" is spelled out in cursive script in string at the top of the sheet. Underneath, Spector then created an arrangement of the remaining letters of the name – KRSTVA – by pulp painting around the plastic block letters. In this show, Spector literally dots his Is and crosses his Ts. In many cases the Is are pulp painted rather than created from string and he crosses his T in fade to blanc with a gray strip of paper, while the rest of the words are written in white string. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the work and you can too by viewing images of the work at http://www.alysiaducklergallery.com/. Surface Texture, 2004, 8 - x 11 inches, abaca with yarn. Published by Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper in an edition of 20. Joyc-aean, 2003, 11 x 8 - inches pigmented abaca pulp painting on a base sheet (white cotton on pigmented cotton). Produced at Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper.