Attie never formally studied art.
Her drawing practice began as an exploration of literary texts, as the expanded inscriptions which they inspired.
 Class Notes, ongoing, is a series of drawings composed during graduate philosophy and physics seminars at Columbia University.
Attie's class notes are taken in the form of drawings.

"Over the past few years, sitting in lectures and seminars at Columbia University, studying philosophy and physics, Alice Attie took 'notes'.
Her Class Notes series of drawings are the result, drawings made in the real time of the seminar, in the moment of encounter with ideas and discussion.
The drawings are full of movement.
In some, she ‘draws’ text in shapes that crisscross and angle across the pages.
In others, the fine lines of cursive ink glide freely and swiftly across the page, suggesting language.
Sometimes a drawing deploys specific words and phrases, sometimes it gestures at text that we cannot quite read or decipher.
These lines are often elongated, extended, dragged and dripping in various directions.
What is so striking is the way in the present tense of the lecture – in the very moment of Attie's intellectual engagement – the lecture content is immediately transformed, or translated, into drawing, but drawing that suggests acts of inscription and gesture at verbal expression".

"Attie's ink drawings involve the miniscule, and explore the territory between writing and drawing and where the two overlap.
Engaging repetition, rhythm and gradual change, she allows tiny words, figures, numbers and images to accrue and grow on the paper.
Whether presenting a landscape of numbers or a language that is not real, she is inspired to trespass over a threshold where language becomes something visual."


Attie's drawing series Take Care of Yourself, inspired by the late lectures of Michel Foucault at the College de France, are writing-drawing abstractions formed by repetitions of the phrase "Take Care of Yourself", referencing the Socratic notion of care as it was addressed in Foucault's studies.
The drawings "mediate between a disequilibrium and a quietness.
 As linguistic gestures, they assure a kind of transgression that disrupts and offers up a contemplative space.

Inspired by nature, Attie's recent photographs feature the meadows, parks, and fields of Iceland, New Hampshire, upstate New York, and Central Park.
Taken with her father's old 1937 Rolleiflex camera, her photographs explore the idea of nature as visual poetry.

Her photographic work and drawings on paper can be found in collections at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Jewish Museum, The Getty Museum in Los Angeles and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, among others.

In 2001, Attie published Alice Attie: Harlem on the Verge, (with introduction by historian Robin D. G. Kelley), a photography book of photo portraits and storefronts documenting modern-day Harlem on the verge of gentrification.
In 2012, Alice collaborated with photographs in books by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Harlem and An Aesthetic Education in the Age of Globalization.

In 2012, Attie collaborated with philosopher Giorgio Agamben contributing photographs to his book The Church and the Kingdom.

Photographs of the artist June Leaf, taken over eighteen years, accompany images of June's drawings in the book Attie completed with Steidl Press to accompany the 2016 Whitney Museum Exhibition: June Leaf: Thought is Infinite.
Attie never formally studied art. Her drawing practice began as an exploration of literary texts, as the expanded inscriptions which they inspired.  Class Notes, ongoing, is a series of drawings composed during graduate philosophy and physics seminars at Columbia University. Attie's class notes are taken in the form of drawings. 
"Over the past few years, sitting in lectures and seminars at Columbia University, studying philosophy and physics, Alice Attie took 'notes'. Her Class Notes series of drawings are the result, drawings made in the real time of the seminar, in the moment of encounter with ideas and discussion. The drawings are full of movement. In some, she ‘draws’ text in shapes that crisscross and angle across the pages. In others, the fine lines of cursive ink glide freely and swiftly across the page, suggesting language. Sometimes a drawing deploys specific words and phrases, sometimes it gestures at text that we cannot quite read or decipher. These lines are often elongated, extended, dragged and dripping in various directions. What is so striking is the way in the present tense of the lecture – in the very moment of Attie's intellectual engagement – the lecture content is immediately transformed, or translated, into drawing, but drawing that suggests acts of inscription and gesture at verbal expression".
"Attie's ink drawings involve the miniscule, and explore the territory between writing and drawing and where the two overlap. Engaging repetition, rhythm and gradual change, she allows tiny words, figures, numbers and images to accrue and grow on the paper. Whether presenting a landscape of numbers or a language that is not real, she is inspired to trespass over a threshold where language becomes something visual."

Attie's drawing series Take Care of Yourself, inspired by the late lectures of Michel Foucault at the College de France, are writing-drawing abstractions formed by repetitions of the phrase "Take Care of Yourself", referencing the Socratic notion of care as it was addressed in Foucault's studies. The drawings "mediate between a disequilibrium and a quietness.  As linguistic gestures, they assure a kind of transgression that disrupts and offers up a contemplative space.
Inspired by nature, Attie's recent photographs feature the meadows, parks, and fields of Iceland, New Hampshire, upstate New York, and Central Park. Taken with her father's old 1937 Rolleiflex camera, her photographs explore the idea of nature as visual poetry.
Her photographic work and drawings on paper can be found in collections at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Jewish Museum, The Getty Museum in Los Angeles and The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, among others.
In 2001, Attie published Alice Attie: Harlem on the Verge, (with introduction by historian Robin D. G. Kelley), a photography book of photo portraits and storefronts documenting modern-day Harlem on the verge of gentrification. In 2012, Alice collaborated with photographs in books by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Harlem and An Aesthetic Education in the Age of Globalization.
In 2012, Attie collaborated with philosopher Giorgio Agamben contributing photographs to his book The Church and the Kingdom.
Photographs of the artist June Leaf, taken over eighteen years, accompany images of June's drawings in the book Attie completed with Steidl Press to accompany the 2016 Whitney Museum Exhibition: June Leaf: Thought is Infinite.
Alice Attie