Pati Hill’s Letters to Jill: a catalogue and some notes on copying (1979) has been reprinted in an addition of 1,000 on the occasion of “Something other than either” at Kunstverein München, the first solo European exhibition of her work since her death in 2014 at the age of 93. This 128-page book was prompted by Hill’s discussions with her gallerist and publisher, Jill Kornblee, about the status of her xerographs and the process of making them.

Deceptively simple, Letters to Jill is an irreverent memoir, an abbreviated catalogue raisonnée, and an ode to the photocopier. Accompanied by excerpts, examples, and commentary on her previous projects and series, Hill’s candid remarks on her own practice and ambitions encapsulate her identity as a writer and artist in her own voice. 

Tracing the evolution of Hill’s practice as a bilingual author with an acute appreciation for the details of objects, Letters to Jill explores Hill’s experiments combining text and image and the promise of xerography as a medium that might evolve to unite artists and writers, if not ultimately dissolve the differences between these two disciplines.

Letters to Jill served as the primary resource for Arcadia Exhibitions’ “Pati Hill: Photocopier — A Survey of Prints and Books (1974-83)”, which was presented in the Spruance, Harrison, and Rosedale Galleries in the spring of 2016. The accompanying catalog was produced with the aspiration to complement rather than duplicate content from Letters to Jill so that the two publications may be used in conjunction to guide further scholarship and curatorial work. “Something other than either”, conceived in cooperation with the Pati Hill Collection at Arcadia, was accompanied by copies of both texts.

Copies of Letters to Jill ($10) and Pati Hill: Photocopier—A Survey of Prints and Books (1974-83) ($30) are available for purchase in the U.S. through gallery@arcadia.edu.