Sojourner Truth Parsons

Vivien Lee

Fiona Alison Duncan

Lawrence Weiner

Maia Ruth Lee

Joana Avillez

Jen Shear

Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves

The Living Theatre

Dan Graham

Shiv Kotecha

Elena Comay del Junco

John Belknap

PINKO

Pilar Maschi

M.E. O'Brien

Johanna Lee Owen

Cecilia Gentili

Joy James

Picture Room

Groupchat at Picture Room by Hard to Read


An exhibition and pop-up shop curated by Hard to Read
Sunday February 4 – Saturday February 10, 2024

How many groupchats does it take to save the world? A talk, show, and pop-up shop, Groupchat features the voices of writers, thinkers, and organizers 

In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love, Contextualizing Angela Davis

. Honoring their ongoing work and recent publications with an intimate discussion on the topics of community, accountability, abolition, devotion, and love. Co-hosted by John Belknap, Shiv Kotecha, Fiona Alison Duncan, and Chase Bell.

Books and prints are available for sale. 

Groupchat is curated by John Belknap and Fiona Alison Duncan.

Signed books and prints are available for sale.

Please book an appointment via info@pictureroom.shop to view the exhibition, or visit on Saturday, February 10th from 11am-6pm for open hours with Duncan.

Picture Room is a gallery and consultancy based in Brooklyn Heights that sells work by emerging and established contemporary artists as well as rare prints, posters, artists’ books, and art publications.

With thanks to Divided Publishing, Little Puss Press, Common Notions, Bierke, and PINKO.

Accountability

community

activisms

labor

radical love

abolition

Groupchat

Abortion Rap

Color Me Flo

Confessions

https://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/project/comedy-of-errors-at-the-gallery-at-el-centro-los-angeles-15426

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/pippa-garner-and-hayden-dunham-on-the-struggle-of-being-inside-bodies

https://novembre.global/magazine/pillow-talk-s-comedy-of-erros-by-fiona-alison-duncan

https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/impact-of-crafts-contemporary-art-pop-culture

https://stars-gallery.com/newsletters/the-secret-written-on-your-torso/

Takako Yamaguchi

SoiL Thornton

Reynaldo Rivera

Fernando Mendez Corona

Matt Kenny

Ishi Glinsky

Florynce Kennedy

Vaquera

Neke Carson

John Greyson

Clifford Prince King

Ilona Staller

Pippa Garner

Mara McKevitt

STARS

“Silver linings rain or shine 
That little red squiggle 
Only catches me sometimes”


Comedy of Erros is a group exhibition curated by 

 as an expression of Pillow Talk. Installed at 

 (formerly The Gallery At) in Hollywood, California, Comedy of Erros explores errors and eros, spanning a range of entanglements, from economic to sensuous to linguistic. 

Originally intended to open on April Fools Day 2020 (poster girl 

's favorite holiday), the show was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Much of the work in the show, programmed the year prior, synchronized with the 2020 zeitgeist.

In the end, Comedy of Erros featured artists from five nations of North America: Canada, Mexico, the U.S., the Mi’kmaq First Nations, and the Tohono O’odham Nation. Photographed naked by 

, Garner exhibited one of God’s discarded human prototypes as a sculpture. 

 presented a body-safe sex toy cast from dirt, mountable, vibrating; made thanks to local manufacturer 

 exhibited balloons and writing, a rarity (helium leaks over time, Parsons work went from buoyancy to deflation, like written language’s life cycle (the balloons are re-inflatable)). The show also feature 

, care of The Los Angeles Public Library and the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

Press Release

comedy

catharsis

human folly

failure

virality

errors

eros

interdependence

it looks like you in here

lesbian

business

Pillow Talk presents Comedy of Erros

Tarren Johnson

SOPHIE

Analisa Teachworth

Dan Bodan

3lsn3r

Mahsa Saloor

Art Geneva

's booth. Hard to Read presented “A tease that’s a bond, not a separation,” an audio piece composed of readings and song, mixed by 

voice

immaterial

Fragile Booth at Art Geneva

Love A Loves Me!

https://lithub.com/at-hard-to-read-everybodys-a-writer-and-everybodys-a-reader/

https://novembre.global/magazine/less-than-em-greater-than-angelo-lanza-the-man-behind-jeffrey-stark-less-than-em-greater-than-by-torey-thornton

https://www.artforum.com/artguide/jeffrey-stark-14328/love-a-loves-me-162710

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnaazX_2y80&ab_channel=FionaAlisonDuncan

Amalia Ulman

Sarah Nicole Prickett

Gary Indiana

Chris Kraus

Fanny Howe

Ana Cecilia Alvarez

Fabiola Ching

Alicia Novella Vasquez

Stefan Schwartzman

Ian Duncan

Matt Hilvers

Margaret Haines

Jeffrey Stark

Jeffrey Stark gallery presents Love A Loves Me! 

Backstory: He told me that when he lived in Queens in the 1970s the streets were covered with the word “BOOK.” It took awhile of wondering before he asked someone and learned that this was how the city dealt with all the “FUCK” graffiti.

For her first show as Hard to Read, organizing artist 

 asked 14 notable readers in her life to read favorite passages from favorite books. She filmed these readers—individuals she’s exchanged or discussed books with, including herself—in their homes, studios, or a public setting of their choice. A film of these readings played in the window of the gallery, where Duncan performed the role of shopkeep. All of the books read from were available for sale and inscribed upon purchase with a handwritten message from their reader via wood stamps reminiscent of meditation blocks. Printed matter containing writing and art by the readers was also available. A series of “Writing on the Wall—” authored by F.A. Duncan, the poet; Fiona Alison Duncan, the mainstay; and Fifi, the fun one—explored language as a tool for domination, seduction, liberation, grace, and what else? While “The Big Book (Gestures of Cumfort)” from reader and artist Matthew Hilvers provided a much needed resting place. Events were held. While attending, Duncan read all of Balzac’s 

With books and writing by the published authors above and Alexandre Bisson, David Abram, Essex Hemphill (ed.), Guillaume Dustan, Herman Melville, Iceberg Slim, Ingo Niermann (ed), Jenny Diski, Laurie Weeks, Robert Ulanowicz, Samuel Delany, Stéphane Mallarmé, and William Gaddis. Books-in-print provided in partnership with McNally Jackson. 

“Love a smooth paved road, 
a hungover coffee, 
a consuming novel, 
a lilac in fall…” 


Business Hours:
Thursdays & Fridays 4-7pm
Saturday & Sundays 1-4pm 

networks

reading is over

family

language as a tool

bookseller

lickety-split tongue in two america mistrusts me because all of you use language like you've been taught to

prayers blocks

Hard to Read is a literary social practice.

 in 2016 to celebrate writers, books, and the literary arts while fostering intentional intersectional and interdisciplinary community. 

Centered around live events, Hard to Read also presents exhibitions, installations, publications, and media.

Pillow Talk is a Hard to Read spinoff, community organizing on sex, love, and communication. 

Ready-to-read by Hard to Read curates books. Shop select books year-round at Eckhaus Latta’s 

Based between New York and Los Angeles, Hard to Read travels by invitation.

Donate directly to support Hard to Read today

Language is an ancient medium that updates itself constantly.

Hard to Read is a literary social practice. Pillow Talk is the spin-off. Shop Ready-to-read for books. 