Considering the Minor in the Literary and Photographic Works of Rodney Graham and Tacita Dean

This essay answers the book's question whether Deleuze and Guattari's concept of minor literature can be transposed to visual art: Despite promising archaisms, Deans and Graham's lens-based practices leave doubts as to the applicability of the concept to photography and film in art. However, both artists have throughout their careers shown considerable interest in writing - and writing even literary texts. An analysis of these showed that they are, indeed, minor literature, but not minor in relation to literary writing, but minor in relation to visual art.The essay closes by pointing out the topic's relevance to considerations of new institutionalism (a fashion around the turn of the millennium among curators for Deleuze and Guattari's theories) and the debate surrounding artistic research or PhDs with art practice: Dean and Graham were both DAAD fellowship recipients in Berlin.