DO NOT ERASE

"Do Not Erase . . . reveals the scribbles, workings and eureka moments of minds bursting with equations and theories, a paean to mental graft and the blackboards that display it. You can almost feel the tickle of dust in the nose, the thump of chalk on the board, the swish of a cuff brushing away a mistake." —Nicola Davis, The Observer "American photographer Jessica Wynne's Do Not Erase captures the visual workings of mathematicians in producing formulas and illustrating their thoughts." —Cheyenne Darko, The Financial Times Snapshot "This is an original, elegant, if baffling book." —Andrew Robinson, Nature "[Wynne] forces us to look at the chalkboards themselves, to see them as documents or artifacts, without the irresistible distraction of human presence." —Brian Hayes, American Scientist "This is a wonderful mirror that Jessica Wynne shows us mathematicians of a world that is so very familiar when looking at it from the inside of our world of mathematics. . . . [that also] forces us to think in a different way about what we are doing day in and day out." —Adhemar Bultheel, MAA Reviews "An incredible, intense delight to read and study . . . Do Not Erase has become my favorite book to randomly explore." —Edward J. Valauskas, First Monday "What does thought look like? As Jessica Wynne shows us, the action of the mind might have no external expression as eloquent as the human, timebound, build-it-up-and-break-it-back-down surface of a working thinker's chalkboard. Wynne's daringly soft-spoken photographs testify at once to the breadth, concreteness, and quietly thrilling historical depth of mathematical thinking as a way of life." —Joel Smith, Morgan Library & Museum "The blackboard is a window into the mathematician's mind and the complicated tangle of thoughts, feelings, and impulses that reside there. Do Not Erase is an unprecedented document of creativity frozen in calcite." —Jordan Ellenberg, author of Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else "Jessica Wynne had a truly inspired idea when she began taking photographs of chalkboards filled with mathematical figures, diagrams, equations, formulas, and theorems. Do Not Erase captures the beauty and messiness, seriousness and playfulness, endless searching and creativity, and energy and life contained in these boards. It contributes to the mathematical literature while bringing the beauty of mathematics to general readers." —John J. Watkins, author of Number Theory: A Historical Approach "In this remarkable book, Jessica Wynne's ambitious collection of blackboard images offers a distinctive picture of the working world of professional mathematics. With contributions from a huge cast of mathematicians, Do Not Erase gives a unique perspective on the profession and its most famous medium." —Michael J. Barany, University of Edinburgh