Amazon has compiled a list of books entitled 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. The books range from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The Autobiography of Malcom X. Going through the list, it quickly became apparent that no traditional religious text was included and almost every book was eligible for Amazon Prime. More than anything though, I was fascinated by the idea of a corporation establishing a list of canonical texts. I went through the list multiple times and realized only 97 books were selected.

Each drawing is the exact size of a book from Amazon’s list. My wife and I visited different libraries in central Ohio. She would look up the call number of a book, I would find it, and trace the outline of the book onto a sheet of paper. Afterwards, I filled them in with graphite. The drawings are intended to obscure each individual book by turning them into “shadows” that have passed in front of Amazon’s light.

Amazon's Light was featured in the exhibition Looking at Things Directly at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.