Erin K. Schmidt

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  • Home
  • books
    • all books
    • birds of a feather >
      • As The Crow Flies
      • Dumped for a Stripper
      • fight or flight
      • Icare
      • sanctuary
      • the dovecote
      • the birds and the bees
      • wrecked
    • body language >
      • anamnesis
      • covfefe
      • hem/o
      • hoax
      • jubblies
      • long blonde hair
      • Learning to Knit
      • perforate
      • THE END OF THE WASP SEASON
      • The Unfinished Blanket
      • tiny maps
      • TRIUMPH
      • veiled muse
    • forest through the trees >
      • day/night
      • house in the wood
      • little canopies
      • the coyote's gift (in shadows)
      • tempted
      • remember me with affection
    • sheep's clothing >
      • 1954
      • buried in memory
      • I remember how we met
      • winter stayed late
    • troubled water >
      • life is but a dream
      • loon lake
      • not this year
      • tea and water pipe
      • Tea Party
      • Telling Time
      • waves
      • what news
  • about
    • exhibitions
    • collections
    • education
    • bibliography
    • awards
  • contact

hoax

During a political rally held on February 28, 2020, the President of the United States of America redirected the nation's attention from the growing concern of the Covid-19 pandemic to what he referred to as a political hoax by the Democratic party after his own slow response to the spreading virus fell under scrutiny. He has continued to react and respond to the spread of the novel coronavirus with political motives since that time, thus continuing to nurture a culture of divisiveness within the US.

This book visually tracks the spread of the novel coronavirus from the time of that infamous utterance until June 1, 2020 when the coronavirus death toll in the United States totaled more than 105,000. Red lines fill the pages, multiplying rapidly, until finally the entire page becomes filled. Each line is composed of the word hoax repeated over and over, visible only under high magnification. There are well over a million hoaxes in this book, representing the known cases of coronavirus in the United States recorded as of June 1, 2020. At the end, over 105,500 individual threads spill out of the book. 105,500 American lives lost, and counting, because a global healthcare crisis became political.

*Unfortunately, the number of cases and deaths has continued to rise well above the numbers represented at the time this book was made in June, 2020.

Inkjet printed Rives BFK 250gsm, embroidery thread, 2020.