“The first artist book by Riley Cavanaugh, Poems Sneaking Through a Sieve, bridges gaps between artist book, monograph, sketchbook, and collection of materials gathered on the Internet. Screenshots of CAPTCHA prompts and spam emails collected between 2018–2021 are the inexhaustible source material for the two bodies of work which act as the publication’s foundation.

Cavanaugh responds to this imagery and information by superimposing written responses on the CAPTCHA prompts and omitting texts and graphics from the spam emails to create visual poems. In the book, a selection of these works is paired with additional drawings and photographs by the artist. The two distinct bodies of visual poems seem to converse—each speaking their own language—while the drawings and photographs push and pull the conversation between feigning automation and showing the artist’s hand.

Included in the publication is an essay by Nina Wexelblatt.” - Publisher