edgepieces

Jigsaw puzzle manufacturers do not use a unique metal die to cut each of their puzzles. For efficiency of production, the same die is used to cut multiple puzzles. I discovered this when doing a pile of jigsaws I’d received for Christmas in 1985. Certain odd-looking pieces were starting to look very familiar… didn’t I just see that strange corner in another puzzle?

When two puzzles have been cut by the same die, their pieces can be swapped. When I find two interchangeable puzzles, I look for ways in which they might combine to make a new image. The resulting mashup, something the puzzle manufacturers never intended but which they enabled, reveals new discoveries and truths. I call these mashups edgepieces.

edgepieces are both my newest and oldest artworks. I made my first edgepiece in 1986 and carried the idea with me. In the 1990s I began to save puzzles I’d assembled, hoping for matches. In the 2000s I began to formally classify the puzzles according to my own taxonomy. In the 2010s I began creating new mashups. From 2018-20 I exhibited some of these new works in Renfro Library at Mars Hill University. In 2026 I built a home studio and dove headfirst into what is now my full-time work.

Below are 12 samples of a body of work that currently contains 36 pieces, with a new edgepiece always just around the corner. 😉