1

The Act of Collecting

2

The Object’s Voice

3

Whoops, It Broke

4

The Better Mousetrap

5

Plumb Wore Out

6

Taste Changed

7

Owners Lost Faith

8

Owners Lost Interest

9

Owners Grew Up

10

nobody cared

11

Got Lost

12

Part of Something Bigger

13

Used Up

14

Better in the Afterlife

15

A Bad Idea in the First Place

16

Never Made Enough

17

Provisional Utility

18

Made for One Use Only

19

Unintended Survivors

20

Mental Collections

21

So What’s Left?

22

Just in Time

About the Author

From the Author

From the field

From You

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chapter 21

So What’s Left?

What’s in a Name? Latent Collections The Irrepressible Call of the Object Routes to the Prize Where Does it All End Up?

Automobile air freshener, 2004. Passion fruit scent La Virgen de Guadalupe in I Love Jesus packaging, 7 1/2" high. USA

So What’s Left? contemplates imaginative reach, its relationship to the satisfactions of collecting, latent collections and the astonishing and collectible (often free) cultural artifacts that are being turned out right now (ex: name misspellings, history of flight objects, serial postcards, movie ticket stubs, wait your turn tickets, diner placemats, 24/7 diner menus, pump & motor ashtrays, objects made of the wrong materials, corks, auto air fresheners, portrait business cards).