Book Art
I express my love of the narrative, and my interest in deconstructing narrative, by making books for people to handle. To be human is to use language and stories to help us think, navigate, and thrive. My favorite themes are mortality, individual transformation, and the acts of writing and reading.
Untouchable: Homage to Felix Gonzales-Torres (2020). Digital collage on paper, rubber stamp, glass, duct tape. Dimensions variable. Made for "Art in the Time of COVID-19" at Art Association Gallery, September 2020, Jackson, WY.
This piece was inspired by selected works of Felix Gonzales-Torres (1957-1996), who had much to say about terrifying illness, and invited viewers to take portions of his work. Segments of my digital collage, stacked here, are for viewers to take.
During Covid, essential elements of human contact became forbidden and potentially fatal - revulsion and yearning were bound together. I wanted to remind people that our fear was temporary. Indeed, we eventually all became touchable again.
Untouchable (detail). Impressions of facial features and fingers made with oil paint on paper were digitally scanned and manipulated. The resulting collage was inkjet printed on watercolor paper.
Key Pad (2018). Collaboration with Holland Dutton of Cora, Wyoming. Take a key to keep a bit of music with you. Hand cut sheet music, laser printing, book board, post binding.
Liberty Walking (2017). Altered books based on two coin collecting albums produced in 1959 for Liberty Walking Half Dollars (issued 1916-1947). Coin slots are filled with original drawings of walking feet. The entire text of Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus," composed for the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, is rubber stamped across the pages of each volume. An homage to Lazarus, liberty, immigration, and walking women everywhere. Each volume: 8 x 6 x 1 inches.
Liberty Walking, detail
Liberty Walking, detail of inside back cover of Volume 1. The collage is made of original pages from Lazarus' 1888 Century Magazine obituary.
A Sonnetary Gloss: Journal and Memo Book (2015) A blank book of 41 ruled pages, with all 154 sonnets of William Shakespeare microprinted in the rules, allowing random or planned collaboration and intervention. Great for lists, sketches, journaling. Foil stamped embossed cover, offset printed interior, perfect bound, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, edition of 750.
A Sonnetary Gloss, detail. This book is ready for your Sonnetary intervention, and fits well in the hand.
A Sonnetary Gloss, detail of microprinting.
READ/REAP: a book to be harvested (2013), 8 x 11 x 1 inches. Pages must be torn open to be read. Handbound codex, edition of 4, inkjet printed on Rives BFK. Click on the image for a short (2:28) video of the complete book.
Recovering Children: Scotty/Walt 1966 (2012). Handsewn coptic binding, 8x8x1". The book holds two watercolor portraits, based on a class photograph, that have been cut up and sewn back together as a way to restore memory and relationships.
Scotty and Walt were two of my classmates in second grade at Evergreen Elementary, Plainfield, NJ. Our teacher was a well-known terror who made second grade a living hell.
Recovering Children: Scotty/Walt 1966 , detail of each portrait, opened up flat. The paintings occupy the front and back of one sheet of paper. The front cover is shown on the left; the back cover appears on the right.
Recovering Children: Kevin/Susie 1966 (2012). Handsewn coptic binding, 8x8x1". The book holds two watercolor portraits, based on a class photograph, that have been cut up and sewn back together as a way to restore memory and relationships.
Kevin and I were classmates in second grade at Evergreen Elementary, Plainfield, NJ. Our teacher was a well-known terror who made second grade a living hell.
Recovering Children: Kevin/Susie 1966, detail of each portrait, opened up flat. The paintings occupy the front and back of one sheet of paper. The inside front cover is shown on the left; the inside back cover appears on the right.
Recovering Children: Brother and Sister (2014). Double-sided watercolor portraits on paper, cut into 36 segments, stored in a handmade box covered in silk bookcloth. Box dimensions: 9 x 11 x 2".
Recovering Children: Brother and Sister. Detail showing storage box opened with double-sided, trimmed, stacked watercolor paintings inside. Each painting section is 10 x 8".
Recovering Children: Brother and Sister View of installation on tabletop or large pedestal, to resemble a puzzle, playing cards, or other game of chance.
Recovering Children: Brother and Sister Reconfigured front and back portraits of the brother and sister, as toddlers and teenagers, after being cut into segments to fit the storage box.