words on torn paper: Specificity began as an act of desperation, expressed by a simple idea: "words on torn paper: just that, once a day." Feeling stagnant in all the ways that matter, writer and photographer Ian Wood clung to the hope that all it takes to push back against the dark and render a momentary decrease in local entropy is "...one thing, just one small thing, that has never existed before." He resolved to create that one small thing, every day, for as long as it felt necessary to do so.
This book is the result of that effort: 90 images, each one planned, constructed, and photographed over the course of a single day, and accompanied by a descriptive object card listing all of the materials used to create each image - including the interior state of the photographer.
Funny, dark, and poignant, words on torn paper: Specificity describes a state of mind familiar to anyone engaged in creative work, and offers a portrait of a man creating because he must, without knowing what it's all for, what any of it means, or whether there's any point to it other than the doing of the thing itself.

Ian Wood is Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leeds