Xerox art - Definition and Overview

Xerox art (sometimes, more generically, called electrostatic art or copy art) is created by putting objects on the glass, or image area, of a copying machine, and by pressing "start," making an image. If the object is not flat, or the cover does not totally cover the object, the image is distorted in some way. The curvature of the object, the amount of light that reaches the image surface, the distance of the cover from the glass all affect the final image. Often, with proper manipulation, rather ghostly images can be made. Xerox art appeared shortly after the first Xerox copying machines were made. There are exhibits now in Los Angeles and New York City museums of more controlled examples of the form. It is akin to photography. Color copiers added to the form, as can be seen by surrealist Jan Hathaway's combining color xerography with other media.

Xerox art is often used in mail art.

References

• Examples of Jan Hathaway's work using color xerography (http://www.jhathaway.com/pages/images1990s.html)
• xérographie (http://www.comm.uqam.ca/~GRAM/C/term/cop/copt240.html)
• Xerox is Dead (http://pwp.detritus.net/in/1999/OP/oftener1.html)

Further reading

• Creative Photocopying (1997), Walton, S. and Walton, S. Aurum Press. ISBN 1854104764.