This process-based work of visual and conceptual art explores “spelled-forms” merged with images of writing on the Rosetta Stone. Spelled-forms are created using a process that translates the spelling of words into abstract images. The process is quite simple: lines plot the spelling of words within a fixed circle of alphabetic points (the letter points aren’t spaced equally around the circle - the consonants are organized around an equal spacing of vowels). The variations in form result entirely from spelling because the configuration of alphabetic points is constant - it doesn’t change from word to word. These process-generated abstract forms map the choices made by our cultural ancestors when they created the signs for words.

“The Book of Spells is an offset-printed edition of a previously created work by the same title, now an edition of five-hundred, it is the newest artist book by Winkler, continuing thirty-five years of exploring ‘spelled-forms.’ The book presents these spelled-forms, which are diagrams of words plotted on a circularly-arranged alphabet throughout which the vowels have been evenly spaced. The resulting abstract lines are superimposed on images of the Rosetta Stone and each composition is treated with its own monochrome color scheme. The latter pages of the book show the abstract forms superimposed on the circular alphabet from which they are derived, with their translation set beneath. The reader is able to understand the process without the original composition being compromised by didacticism. Thus, the book combines finished work and process into a single object. Facing the colophon, a concluding page spells “curled” and “edge.” resulting in pictograms of archeological artifacts that reframe our understanding of language’s development. The book preserves a satisfying tension between science and mysticism. Its diagrams and codified language support each interpretation equally. Similarly the book’s pocket format, saddle-stitch and coated stock feel equal parts scientific manual and religious pamphlet.” - Journal of Book Arts