In 2019, to commemorate the centenary of The New School, Yip publisher Ben Van Buren was commissioned to produce a book from within the exhibition “The Historical Present,” which, in addition to 8 new commissions, was curated from the school’s archive and art collection. Adopting the gallery space as kind of home base and work space, Yip periodically ventured deep into New School property equipped with a purpose-built ‘scanning cart’—a simple pushcart with battery powered scanner installed on top. On these excursions Yip would make scans of everything and anything, nothing in particular. Student’s faces, pieces of trash, pieces of art—whatever was in the path of the cart. The result is a moving-average of the feel of the New School as it was turning 100. The resulting 8.5” x 11” book begs questions about the nature of commemoration and the virtue of archival practice. Much like the institution itself, this is a book full of success and failure. Certainly, if such a book has any value it’s not because it’s thrilling to read. It’s because it’s a body. It’s because it can capture all that unspoken heft that moves beyond the semantic content of a specific institutional utterance. That heft that does something. Yip remains most grateful for the support of curators Macushla Robinson and Anna Harsanyi.