Universe uses marginalia in the unlikely context of an audio book, The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking (2001), by sonically recording the actions of the artist as she listens to the source text. Just as a borrowed book from the library has evidence of its previous readers, this audible example of marginalia magnifies the experience, as we hear the intimate actions of Bicknaver engaging with the text before us.

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Playing upon the title and content of the source text, Universe juxtaposes the sublime universe of Stephen Hawking to the mundane everyday “universe” of the artist. Bicknaver’s coughs, quips, and sighs intermingle with the diegetic sounds of the artist’s apartment in contrast with Hawking’s explanation of our stunningly amazing universe, reinforcing the banal divergence of the human experience with the unfathomable existence of everything. A subtle play for power is evoked between “the read” and “reader” as we hear the artist engage with the universe depicted in the book, and disengage into her own mundane everyday universe, forcing the text into the margins of quotidian life.