These crystal objects possess excerpts of the correspondence between French writers and lovers Gustave Flaubert and Louise Colet. While Flaubert’s letters have been widely published, Colet’s did not make it to posterity. Bloom began working on this project in 1987. The artist rewrote Colet’s lost epistles and engraved them on crystal in her own handwriting. Flaubert’s voice was lettered by a male friend of the artist.

Barbara Bloom, Flaubert Letters III, 1987/2012, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of John Baldessari, © Barbara Bloom, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA