Semantic Royalty

2021

Chiffon, lace, metal hoop, person (optional)

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I am a chronic listmaker. I use listmaking as a way to keep some semblance of control in my life. I’m not sure how many lists I have. Several hundred I’m sure, between the ones on my phone in various applications and the physical lists I have on paper.

Semantic Royalty may not look like a book, but it is an artist’s book: an undefinable term that refers to something with elements a book might share, such as words, pages, a serial nature, a way of cataloguing, etc, etc, etc. I like words and terms that are definable. In fact, I have a list of them.

Words to Learn is the longest list I’ve made. At the time I’m writing this, it’s 941 words long. I’ve been keeping it for years. Every time I hear a word I’m unfamiliar with, or stumble upon one in a reading, or even consider a word I recognize but couldn’t define well, I add it to Words to Learn.

Semantic Royalty contains only a small fraction of what I’ve begun to consider my collection of words. I conceived of what it would feel like to fall asleep with a canopy of words surrounding me.