WHO was James Acord? The artist, who took his own life in January, is perhaps most easily defined as the only person in the US to hold an individual licence for handling radioactive material. A sculptor who trained in nuclear physics so that he could make art with radioactive material, he famously had that licence number tattooed on the back of his neck. His choice of medium was deliberate: Acord’s mission was to change the nuclear industry.
When visited him in 1995, two years after he had been granted the licence, he spoke of building a monument that would entrap…
