The thread-spool works are often installed so that viewers first perceive the spools of thread as a random arrangement of colorful cylinders. It is only after the spools are viewed through an optical device, such as a clear acrylic sphere or convex mirror, that the recognizable image emerges. -Devorah Sperber

Using 986 spools of colored thread suspended on stainless steel chains, Sperber has created a pixilated, inverted image of one of the most iconic works in American art: Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930, Art Institute of Chicago). The acrylic sphere placed in front of the image, which rotates it 180 degrees and condenses its seemingly disparate visual information into a legible picture, simulates the function of the eye, drawing attention to the complex interaction between the mind and body that constitutes human sight.