Arnold Koroshegyi Discarded Dedications - 2004 - ongoing
“Discarded Dedications” is a collection of personal dedications written on flyleaf pages in books that have been cast aside. The photographs explore absence and memory through decontextualized images of handwritten inscriptions. The source materials for the artworks were found at yard sales, thrift shops, curbsides, in garbage bins, or church basement auctions.
These books are of interest because of the highly specific mark of the dedication—one that makes the mass-produced book singular and personal. Whether they are biographies, novels, collections of poetry or self-help guides, these uniquely dedicated books hint at a narrative beyond the pages: they evoke an intimate relationship (the giver has put thought into the gift and expects the receiver to read the book) that has been rejected by the act of tossing the personally inscribed gift away. The series explores what private inscriptions become as they are put back into the world, how personal messages resonate differently when read by those for whom they were not originally intended. Created around the cast-off social object, “Discarded Dedications” serve as mute testimony to a collective, forgotten memory.
© Copyright Arnold Koroshegyi, 2026 All rights reserved