Artist Dread Scott is joined in conversation by Brian Boucher (senior writer, Artnet) about his new book Fragments of the Peculiar Institution: A Project, the inaugural title from CPInPrint. Presented by Critical Practices, Inc. and C&B Publications.

The project is a glimpse into my ongoing attempt to understand more about slavery. It excerpts my effort to grapple with our present by looking at America’s past. – Dread Scott

In this slim, lavishly illustrated volume of materials gathered as research for an ongoing project to reenact the 1811 New Orleans slave revolt, Scott traces the institution of slavery in the United States, its cultural heritage, and current resonances. With both contemporary and historic texts, documents, images, and his own commentary, Scott focuses on the most notable aspects of slavery in America beginning with its institutionalization within the Constitution. Scott takes us through the history of slave auctions, plantation culture, slave rebellions, the Dred Scott Decision, the Civil War, as well as a critical analysis of contemporary mass media
representation of this history and its development in popular culture.

Fragments of the Peculiar Institution shows that the legacy of slavery in the United States is still with us. It is an especially timely project given recent discussions concerning race in the U.S., in the light of recent, nationally-covered, high-profile, killings of Black people by police, and the efforts of resistance by the #Blacklivesmatter movements.