OM.2026.004 - Reid Wood - USA

OM.2026.004 - mixed media on panel - 8 x 8 inches - Reid Wood - USA - Visual Poetry and Color

Reid Wood is an acclaimed American contemporary visual poet, printmaker, performance artist, and mail art coordinator based in Oberlin, Ohio. Operating globally under his historic network moniker "State of Being," Wood has been an essential engine of the international correspondence network since 1981. His practice seamlessly merges classical printmaking, monoprint drawing, and tactile collage to explore communication that exists entirely outside standard linear language. [1, 2, 3, 4]

An overview of his background, aesthetic methodology, and community impact includes:

Academic Roots and Studio Spaces

• Formal Education: Wood holds both a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Master of Arts (MA) in Studio Art from Oberlin College, alongside advanced graphic and print studies completed at Kent State University, the University of Akron, and the Visual Studies Workshop. [1]
• The Dual-Studio Method: He operates his practice out of two distinct home studios. The first is a dedicated tactile workshop for making fine-art collages and wet monoprints, which he subsequently cuts, tears, and structures into abstract paper puzzles. The second studio serves as his "mail art hub," loaded with thousands of vintage rubber stamps, a printing press, digital imaging tools, and historical correspondence catalogs. [1]

"EYE re:CALL" and Pioneering Tele-Network Art

• Conceptual Fax Art: Wood achieved substantial subcultural renown in 1994 when he launched EYE re:CALL, a landmark international conceptual project that bridged analog mail art with emerging digital fax and email technologies. [1, 2]
• Choreographing Time Zones: Wood coordinated a global network of artists across tight international time zones, prompting each to sequentially modify and fax a common baseline image. He compiled the evolving fax variations into a celebrated documentary art book, mapping out how an image transforms as it passes from hand to hand. [1]

Micropress Monographs and Currency Play

• Bab(b)el-on Series: Wood has published numerous acclaimed avant-garde booklets and artist books through independent networks. His noted suite, Codex Bab(b)el-on, published by Reed Altemus’s micropress Tonerworks, treats multi-lingual European postage stamps, custom baggage tags, and travel ephemera as visual noise, subverting traditional travel logs into an eerie, dreamlike script. [1, 2, 3]
• The Materiality of Currency: Expanding his commentary on social systems, his recurring project series, such as Funny Money, plays directly with the texture, typography, and imagery of fiat currency, defacing and reassembling bills into abstract economic parodies. [1, 2]

The Oberlin Archive and Permanent Collections

• 20,000 Pieces Preserved: Securing his institutional legacy, the Oberlin College Libraries permanently house the Reid Wood "State of Being" Mail Art Archive. Alongside the Harley Francis archive, this massive collection preserves over 20,000 historical works from 1,800 network artists across 70 countries, serving as a premier destination for researchers of 20th-century counterculture. [1]
• Exhibition Profile: His individual assemblages and visual poetry sheets have been exhibited in over 80 regional and global venues, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, SPACES Gallery, the Phoenix Art Museum, and Immanence in Paris. [1, 2]

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