New exhibition by artist Erica Baum presents poetry of word and image at the George Eastman Museum

The George Eastman Museum is pleased to present the bite in the ribbon—a paper show, artist Erica Baum’s first solo museum exhibition, on view November 22, 2025 through June 7, 2026.

Through the selection, manipulation, and reproduction of existing printed materials, Erica Baum creates a poetry of word and image that inspires close looking and close reading. In the bite in the ribbon—a paper show, several series will be juxtaposed, revealing the interrelated explorations of her practice. The exhibition will feature early, ongoing projects and the artist’s most recent turns, with never-before-seen work throughout.

“Erica Baum has long been an influential figure in contemporary art and poetry,” said Daniel Peacock, assistant curator, Department of Photography, George Eastman Museum. “By bringing together several of her ongoing series, the exhibition invites viewers to experience how a continuing fascination with the instability of language and meaning inspires her celebrated work. At a museum with a unique dedication to photography, Baum’s innovative approach to the medium will spark cross-disciplinary connections.”

Baum's series Dog Ear will be presented in the Potter Peristyle. In this sustained body of work, the artist adapts the page marking convention of the dog ear to new ends. Baum folds the pages of found books to create a meeting between the surface of one page and the next. Through the diagonal fold, the pages and their contents meet in surprising adjacencies, rendering new texts and images from the original material.

In the Project Gallery, the interrelated series Patterns and Fabrications will show Baum's recent explorations of the visual and material culture of fashion and craft. In Patterns, the artist activates the lines, forms, patterns, colors, and texts found in the abstract world of mid-century sewing patterns. Fabrications continues from Patterns by opening into a broader visual culture of magazines, catalogs, and books related to fashion and craft, as well as the advertisements and coupons found within. Together, these series reframe the domestic imaginary present in the printed materials Baum recontextualizes. Engaging in textual and visual play, Baum invites us to experience what was once familiar in unexpected new ways.

Programming

Artist talk: Erica Baum
Wednesday, April 1, 2026 at 6pm
Free for members and students with ID; $15 nonmembers.
Tickets can be purchased in advance, but will also be available at the door.

Members-Only Exhibition Tour with Erica Baum
Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 6pm
Members Only; Tickets must be reserved in advance.

Curated by Daniel Peacock, Department of Photography.

About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 31,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. The George Eastman Museum is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. For more information, visit eastman.org.