Judith Hoffberg. An elfin art mother with short-cropped hair, whose non-stop life was devoted to the exhibition and documentation of artists books and the collection and exhibition of ephemeral objects that artists made and via postal mail exchanged with each other.

Caydance remembered watching Judith install an exhibition in a University gallery. The care with which she carefully placed each book. How slowly the exhibition acquired an overall visual impact. How at the same time each book was exhibited in the way that each artist desired.

arrow It was unlikely that a work of art purchased at an antique store by a wandering venture capitalist would have been created by an artist whom Caydance wished never to see again. But at this point, she needed to know if this object was the work of Mackie Alarie.

Judith would know who created the cryptic object that confronted Caydance on her studio table, but she had not yet contacted Judith.