Calvino's Cities on the Amazon, 1995 60" x 112" Watercolor, collage and acrylic on paper mounted on fabric with audiotape Courtesy DC Moore Gallery (Detail: "Beersheba") Calvino's Cities on the Amazon, 1995 (Detail: "Beersheba") Calvino's Cities on the Amazon is Joyce Kozloff's homage to Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities, in which Marco Polo describes for Kublai Khan fifty-six imaginary cities in his empire. "After many readings, I realized that the cities, all named for women, are metaphors for male fantasies (among other things). I isolated something that moved me from each story. Going down the Amazon is another adventure fantasy, and so I collapsed the two preoccupations into one work. I exhibit it with a 'sound track' -- of Nik (Kozloff) reading excerpts from the book." (Joyce Kozloff, as quoted in Crossed Purposes exhibition catalog, page 25, interview conducted by Moira Roth)