The Civilization of Llhuros was first installed at the Andrew D. White Museum of Art at Cornell University in the winter of 1972. A copy of the 60-page exhibition catalogue was handed out to each visitor. Created by Norman Daly in collaboration with art museum staff, it has remained as an integral element of “Llhuros” since its creation. Copies may still be found in university libraries around the world.

Art historian Kathleen Spies:

“The 1972 catalogue also offers the fictive author/scholar’s interpretation of particular artworks and inclusion of related extant poems, in reality penned by Daly.  The poems and interpretations offer further insight into the internal logic of Llhuros and allude to Daly’s thematic connections of the art project to contemporary culture. 

Using Dada-derived strategies of performance and humor as critique, Daly mimics and exaggerates academic speak to the point of comic absurdity, using unnecessarily and overly complicated language and esoteric terminology shared only by fellow specialists.

The fictive nature of the catalogue is only fully broken at the end of the text, where the reader finds the extraordinarily useful 1971 interview between Daly, now identified as “professor of art” and Thomas Leavitt, then director of the Andrew D. White Museum of Art at Cornell.”

Click the image to open the online catalogue (60 pages)
After reading, use the X in the upper right corner to exit.