Slant Step Book: The Mysterious Object and the Artworks It Inspired

For nearly five decades a peculiar wooden object called the “Slant Step” was exchanged between artists from coast to coast, developing a cultlike following and inspiring poetry, art and unlikely collaborations. Artist William T. Wiley first came upon the original object at a salvage store in Northern California in 1965. Covered in worn green linoleum, it looked like a footstool; however, its sharp slanted riser mystified Wiley and Bruce Nauman, his student at the University of California, D...