Boetti’s critical view of systems of classification is expressed in The Thousand Longest Rivers in the World, a project that comprises a book and two tapestries. Boetti and a collaborator spent seven years researching the lengths of rivers, determined to arrive at a convincingly accurate hierarchy despite the impossibility of absolute measurements. This work presents their findings in a straightforward list in descending order of length, giving no clue to the inexact and contradictory information underlying it. Like all of Boetti’s tapestries, it was not made by him; he sent the design to craftswomen in Pakistan to embroider.
Gallery label from 2011.