Torrington Project

Torrington Project is an artist book by Tom Burr documenting his three-year occupation of a repurposed 19th-century factory in Torrington, Connecticut. A subversive take on the catalogue raisonné, it blurs the boundaries between studio and gallery, art and architecture, and artist and community. Through extensive photographic documentation, critical essays, and personal reflections, it maps both the physical transformation of the space and the network of social exchanges that emerged within it. The publication functions not as a static record but as an active extension of the Torrington Project itself—a site where past works, new interventions, and evolving ideas continue to circulate and unfold beyond their original context.

From 2021 to 2024, Burr took up residence in a sprawling, former manufacturing facility. Neither a conventional exhibition nor a traditional studio, the project transformed the building into what Burr has called a “living archive”—a space for revisiting, recontextualizing, and, in some cases, restoring past works. Rather than a site of pure production, Burr brought together over ninety works from throughout his career, collapsing the divide between past and present. Burr also opened the space to fellow artists, inviting Gordon Hall, Maria Hassabi, and Nick Mauss to stage performances, while welcoming an evolving network of visitors as Torrington Project unfolded. The project explored the fluid interplay between an artwork’s conception, reception, and historicization, with Burr reflecting on how his work has shifted over time—an investigation now deployed through the form of this book.

Alongside writing from George Baker, Jordan Carter, Aria Dean, Jody Graf, Renée Green, David Joselit, Christine Messineo, Humberto Moro, Blake Oetting, as well as Burr’s recollections, the publication also features extensive documentation and archival ephemera. Torrington Project charts the social and spatial dimensions that defined the titular endeavor, underscoring Burr’s ongoing engagement with architecture, institutional critique, personal histories, and the transformation of public space.