Tauba Auerbach is known for creating work about language and logic through a variety of media. Her training as a traditional sign painter often informs her text-based work. For issue 20, Tauba designed a 24-hour wall clock, including its 24 numerals. The clock’s mechanism ran from midnight to midnight, meaning the hands circled the clock once every 24 hours. This time keeping system, rarely used in analog form, disrupted the average experience of reading time by forcing a moment of active deciphering instead of the usual passive glance.

We worked with the artist and Assembly Design to produce a clock that could be manufactured in the United States with readily available materials and minimal waste. The clean design featured 24 gold-hued numerals silkscreened onto a clean white face. Tauba’s Two Wire font figured prominently in the issue’s packaging scheme (also designed by Assembly), as well as on the clock back and in the issue’s promotional video.