Deleted/undeleted: the liminal typography of Lowell Bodger

The letterpress broadsides of Lowell Bodger, an American artist active c.1980–2000, have been valued as demonstrations of so-called ‘pure’ typography or as examples of typography for typography’s sake. My article attempts to refute that narrow claim and establish their rightful status as works of fine art whose technical concerns are one aspect of a deeper, imaginative engagement with the condition of liminality – the sense of being ‘betwixt and between’, or caught between conflicting views, beliefs, identities. ‘Deleted/undeleted’ analyses the visual properties of the works as well as their idiosyncratic texts (most by the artist), and draws on archival materials such as published lectures, private notes and correspondence to document the artist’s creative engagement with issues of identity.