Beginning in 1998 and continuing as part of her ongoing work, poet Mary Ruefle has produced a series of altered books from which she creates poetic texts in a process called “erasure,” which Ruefle has defined as an act of “creating a new text by disappearing the old text that surrounds it.” Using correction fluid, markers, and gouache, and often incorporating collaged found images, the original texts are partially covered over to reveal new and surprising voices, phrases, narratives, and fragmented poems.

Photo credit: Detail from Isla Heron, 2021, by Mary Ruefle