Amendment #8

What words or phrases can you make out on the surface of this painting? The text comes from the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which forbids the use of "cruel and unusual punishments."

This work is part of a series Mark Bradford made about the Bill of Rights. Inspired by the idea that a piece of paper could embody fundamental human liberties, Bradford used paper as his medium--wetting it, building it up, and scraping it down so that it became a dense cake of multicolored pulp.

The words are buried within the paper's layers. While some are visible, most float in and out of legibility, just as certain people and ideas have come into focus at different times in our history. Reflecting on the Constitution, Bradford marvels that "we will never understand the entire document.... Its meaning glimmers."

Credit: Gift of the Lohrfink Foundation and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment