The key image in Cornell's creative interior journeys is always something initially only glimpsed--a memory not clearly contextualized. ~Blair 82 It was [in childhood] that Cornell sought most tirelessly for glimpses of the self [...] he reached for those things in daily life that might offer him an element of surprise, and it is within the context of childhood memory--the apparently known--that the unknown afforded him the most pleasure. ~Blair 98

Cornell created his boxes through an elaborate system of collected dossiers, the largest of which was well over 1,000 pages. Cornell stretched the role of the artist, becoming a journalist, an editor, correspondent, graphic designer, and archivist.