postcards are the painted equivalents of his photographic approach. «Black Out» (1971) is more reductive; a felt-tip frenetically scribbles over a piece of white paper until turns black. «Water to Wine to Water» (1972–73) reduces a Biblical miracle to the status of a magic trick or sciences fair experiment—but manages to dupe the camera all the same. This, like many of Baldessari’s other Super-8 films, is a loop originally shot in 16 mm. With no beginning or end to the transformation, the liquid won’t stop changing, turning the miracle itself into a slight annoyance. The artist as shaman or alchemist proves to be a tedious fraud. In «Time/Temperature» (1972–73) a small hourglass and thermometer measure properties that are otherwise invisible. Like the camera, these are indexical instruments, but where the camera would ordinarily be taken for granted, these devices seem self-evident.

The film industry is another concern in Baldessari’s Super-8s. Of course it is implied by the choice of medium, but some works reflect it thematically. «Dance» (1971), for example, records a flip book in action. This is nothing less than a demonstration of

how film works. It implies, among other things, that the cinematic apparatus is less a matter of technology than it is a desire to structure seeing a certain way. In the various versions of «Taking a Slate» (1974), Baldessari presents the kind of footage that ordinarily lands on the cutting room floor. Sometimes we see a sequence just as it was shot. Other times, we see that same strip of film moving back and forth on a viewer. This means Baldessari sometimes had to film his own film. Moreover, there is no slate. An actor simply mimics one with his hands. Both versions of Ted’s Christmas Card feature tight close-ups of an old-fashioned, winter landscape printed on foil paper. The card keeps tilting so that it reflects a hallucinatory light straight back at the camera. The camera is in so close that we only see fragments of the scene. Tinsel Town beckons in «The Hollywood Film» (1972-73) where the same thing happens again, only this time with two buttons with starlets’ portraits on one side and mirrors on the other. When not confined to a universe of shallow facades, the viewer is accordingly «blinded by the light» of a reverse projection.

As a group, Baldessari’s Super-8s negotiate what