The conceptual American artist Buzz Spector has long been interested in the intricacies of the written word. His work is often described as destructive. Spector alters books—often philosophy books. He rips the pages and repurposes them to make statements about ethics, authorship, and literary history. “I stack things,” he says. “I tear stuff up.” Some books are transformed into sculpture, others become part of collages and mashups, still others are used to create eye-opening blocks of text. This exhibition displays five decades of work, from the 1970s to now. “I capture the discrepancies between individual memory and public history,” explains Spector. —E.C.