Sinn(e) Sammeln <Licht>: This book is composed of only plant, seed and nut images. These are put loosely on pages and rubbings are made. These forms seem like microscopic images. I expect that people appreciate this book carefully and focus as if they are looking through a lens.

Three kinds of Japanese transparent paper (Kozo, Ganpi, Mitsumata) were bound with yellow paper at the spine. The papers are very thin and light. I intended that people feel ethereal and feathery. The title Sinn(e) Sammeln means "gather mind and sense" in German. Licht means "light". One important element for sprouting is light. The yellow color is an image of light. In the book there are no images of grown plants or shoots, there are only seminal images. I expect that people imagine plants growing in one's self. On the acrylic plastic case is a silkscreen printed image of grown plants.

The objects treated in these pieces are books. Precious items to many, books are our friends, storytellers, informers, record keepers, and communicators. Although books are often considered ephemeral by the nature of their fragile materials, they often outlive their owners and will have to fend for themselves. Part of a larger installation that includes household furniture including small tables, chairs, wooden boxes and a bookshelf, these three Sedimentals exist on their own -- intended to be displayed on a shelf or table top. Like the other items in this installation, these books have been lovingly prepared and placed for safekeeping in the sediment of a household.

Today my trademark is hand-cut illustrated books, with layers of pages that gradually build images and stories. Steam, Salt, Milk is my first -- and to-date only -- book where I have taken a complete story and told it predominantly by the use of cutting techniques. I first designed the book in 2000 as a unique copy cut by hand and with a few pages selectively burnt in service of the story. In July 2010 I was invited to participate in a short residency at the University of West England (Bristol, UK) where I was given 4 days to produce work using their laser-cutting equipments, helped by technician Tom Sowden, himself also an artist. This meant I could finally reproduce the book in a small edition, this time embracing the precision cutting and heat of the laser-burn. I was very pleased with the outcome, and feel the scorching of the paper perfectly enhances my illustrations. My first time using a laser-cutter -- a pleasing baptism of fire.

I have myself translated the story from Danish into English, based on the Old Norse mythology regarding the Creation of the world.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 2 (pages 8-9): describing two worlds meeting -- Niflheim (ice) and Muspelheim (fire). Here pop-ups are mixed with laser-cut illustrations.

Image 3 (page 51): Telling how trolls drowned in the blood of the giant Ymer who was killed by the three gods: Odin, Vile and Ve. Here the words themselves become an active part of illustrating the story.

Image 4 (page 55): Out of Ymer's dead body the gods created the Earth with the ground, ocean, mountains, rocks and the firmament above with clouds. In the picture you see several page-layers, each describing a different body part turning into what will be part of the Earth.

Image 5 (pages 109-110): Towards the end we learn about the big Ash tree Yggdrasil, which lies in the centre of the home of the gods, Asgard. The stem of the tree is the spine of the book, with the branches stretching out across the page. Again the reader is allowed to look through layers of multiple pages.

I am inspired by the visual simplicity of common shapes and symbols. The repetition of these symbols leads to a greater whole and a meaning far beyond that of the initial simple shape. The variations in my hand-drawn patterns and the focus on the unexpected shapes created through the repetition of common symbols are the focus of my recent works.

Other constants that drive my work: the visual power of word and image combined, the notion that both word and image are formed from abstractions, and both are codes to be deciphered; an engagement with Judaic subject matter: ritual, ceremony and classic texts, and the resulting synthesis of tradition and modernity; and an exploration of the beauty and power of line, and the graphic essence of a letter -- whether it can be "read" or not.

Plum Colored Regret is my most recent limited edition work. Of the hundreds of Hebrew poems written in medieval Spain, one is attributed to a woman. This poem, "Will Her Love Remember", written by The Wife of Dunash ben Labrat, was the starting point for Plum Colored Regret. The 8-line poem first appears in the book in the original Hebrew. It then appears in English, and the lines of the poem, printed in larger type, drive the movement of the book. My own prose, printed in the smaller type, amplifies the voice of the poet and expands on the narrative in her poem. The tiles and calligraphic art of medieval Spain inspire the format of the book and the imagery contained within. I freely lettered the first Hebrew lines of the poem, and the shapes created from that calligraphy became the plum colored lithographs accompanying the text. The decorative vellum lacing and closure echoes the punched and laced bindings of the books from that time and place. The movement of the pages echoes the content of the poem: the lovers are separated; they will be divided, never together again.

I became interested in book art while I was working in the antiquarian book trade in London (2001-2006). During this time, most of the work I produced involved textile craft and writing. When I began to study science in 2006, I was astonished by the beauty of the images I encountered in experimental work and instructional material. Working in porcelain mosaic, I created a number of pieces that employ design elements and iconography in cell biology and molecular genetics. In 2009, I turned to the book art form as a venue in which to bring together the seemingly distinct fields of textile craft and scientific representation.

My two book art works -- Neuron (2010) and WHYFOR 1.0 (2011) -- are "science textbooks" fashioned of yarn by means of knitting and embroidery. Neuron is an "introductory anatomy textbook" that includes diagrams of basic neurological structures and processes, such as synaptic neurotransmission, action potential, nerve cell types, and impulse inhibition and excitation. WHYFOR 1.0 contains rudimentary diagrams from a range of science disciplines, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology and biology. Rendered in knotted thread, the images in both books foreground the aesthetic properties of science visualizations, conveying the intrinsic—often overlooked—elegance of scientific illustrations and pedagogical aids. The application of craft techniques to scientific representation is a means of defamiliarizing our basic understandings of the physical world. The painstaking process of needlepoint, furthermore, evokes the meticulous and often arduous procedures of scientific investigation.

I became interested in book art while I was working in the antiquarian book trade in London (2001-2006). During this time, most of the work I produced involved textile craft and writing. When I began to study science in 2006, I was astonished by the beauty of the images I encountered in experimental work and instructional material. Working in porcelain mosaic, I created a number of pieces that employ design elements and iconography in cell biology and molecular genetics. In 2009, I turned to the book art form as a venue in which to bring together the seemingly distinct fields of textile craft and scientific representation.

My two book art works -- Neuron (2010) and WHYFOR 1.0 (2011) -- are "science textbooks" fashioned of yarn by means of knitting and embroidery. Neuron is an "introductory anatomy textbook" that includes diagrams of basic neurological structures and processes, such as synaptic neurotransmission, action potential, nerve cell types, and impulse inhibition and excitation. WHYFOR 1.0 contains rudimentary diagrams from a range of science disciplines, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology and biology. Rendered in knotted thread, the images in both books foreground the aesthetic properties of science visualizations, conveying the intrinsic—often overlooked—elegance of scientific illustrations and pedagogical aids. The application of craft techniques to scientific representation is a means of defamiliarizing our basic understandings of the physical world. The painstaking process of needlepoint, furthermore, evokes the meticulous and often arduous procedures of scientific investigation.

The cuttings reveal the texts inside the books in a very peculiar way: visual rhythms shaped by the grid of the lines of text and beautiful, almost moiré like patterns become visible when observed from the side.

The text contained within the book is a found poem, constructed from a variety of primary sources and edited, altered and combined to give the reader a sense of time and place as well as a basic narrative of the event. The writings of Buckminster Fuller and excerpts from the poem about Fuller "The Praises" by Charles Olson combine with anecdotes from Fuller's class at Black Mountain by Elaine de Kooning. Authors and texts are cited in the colophon. By deconstructing the writing of both Fuller and Olson in this way, the book subtly challenges the masculine modernity that they embody. The text is placed along the bottom edge of the book in a sloping downward arc, echoing the shape of the supine dome that refuses to arc upward.

Printed in an edition of 20 copies on 100% rag Holyoke Fine Paper using hand-set 14pt Caslon metal type, title in Futura. Images are printed using photopolymer plates and figures are cut with a laser cutter. Each page of the accordion structure consists of two printed sheets glued back to back, creating a thick, rigid panel that stands easily on its own. A long, continuous sheet of tyvek runs between the pages that form the panels, acting as a hinge. The cover is Cave paper in granite over boards. Printed in Hanover, NH and bound in Orange, MA by the artist in the fall of 2010.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: Cover and spine, standing open. Cover is Cave paper in granite over boards with hand-set title in Futura, printed in red.

Image 2: Book, front, standing open and arranged in a staggered, loose star shape, one of many possible standing configurations. Pages are two thinknesses of 100% rag paper with a long sheet of tyvek running throughout, forming the hinges between panels.

Image 3: Detail of back, standing. The back of each page is printed with a continuous triangular grid pattern from a photopolymer plate.

Image 4: Lying flat, open to the second-to-last page spread. The cut figures reveal the triangular grid printed on the back of each page.

Image 5: Detail of laser cut figures and printing on the front of each page. Images printed from photopolymer, text printed from hand-set metal type.

The following thoughts regarding
The acquisition, commissioning and naming Of
Occurred and were inscribed Throughout the morning hours, Immediately preceding the moment At which the craft was lowered Into her design destined REALIZATION At midday July 31, 1948 | She who was burned more than half her body skipped out of death Observing that there are five solid figures, the Master concluded that the Sphere of the Universe arose from the dodecahedron | using bobby pins, clothespins, all sorts of units from the five-and-ten-cent store to make geometric, mobile constructions, collapsing an ingeniously fashioned icosahedron by twisting it and doubling and tripling

the modules down to a tetrahedron;
talking about the obsolescence of the square, the cube,
the numbers two and ten; extolling the numbers nine and three, the circle, the triangle, the tetrahedron, and the sphere | "Ah," he said affectionately, "here's our old friend, the hypotenuse." | Going from micro to macro, each more inclusive aspect of Universe is unpredicted by any of its respective subparts taken separately. Universe is a synergy of synergies. It is a corollary of synergy that the known behavior of wholes plus the

known behavior of a few of their
parts enables discovery of other parts and their
behavioral characteristics. | The students | who seemed to have vaguer aspirations, nebulous and idealistic | the students worked on the computations for the junction of the six "great circles" that would crisscross the dome in triangulated formations.

Pendactylism is general in the animal
kingdom. But crystals ... there, pentagonal forms or lattices do
not, can not appear So we have it: star and jelly fish, the sea urchin. And because there

is an ideal and constant angle which, for leaves and branches on a stem, produces the

maximum exposition to light, that light vertical, fruit blossoms the briar rose the

passion flower | the dome he had in mind
would weigh less than a hundred pounds, its design
would be a beautiful geometric pattern of varied colors and four different types of

triangles, and would soar fifty feet | Said he:
to dream takes no effort to think is easy to act is more difficult but for
a man to act after he has taken thought, this! | What has been lost is the value, viz., that the work get done, and quickly, without the loss of due and profound respect for the materials which is not so easy as it sounds, nor can it permit the dispersion

which follows from
too many having too little knowledge |
Those involved with the project stood on a bluff with umbrellas and raincoats and watched those below roll out miles of colored aluminum and run about in the rain inserting bolts where he had calculated holes should be punched | quite confident I have discovered the coordinate system employed by nature itself | -- but as we had only half the tensile strength needed, we all knew the dome would not go up.

"Let’s put it together anyhow," he said.
"One never knows the ways of the Almighty." |
you got the sort of feeling it wanted to go up, but it was limpid and settled down like a pneumatic bag that had little air in it. | It is only at the moment of humans' realistic admission to themselves of having made a mistake that they are closest to that mysterious integrity governing Universe. | by shipwreck, he perished the first to publish (write down, divulge) the secret, the construction of, from 12 pentagons, the sphere "Thus was he punished for his impiety" | that that which has been found out by work may, by work, be passed on (without due loss of force) for use USE

The text in this poem comes from a variety of sources that were combined, edited and altered, including the poem "The Praises" by Charles Olson, Elaine deKooning's account published in Sprouted Seeds, Martin Duberman's book Black Mountain College: An Exploration in Community, and the writings of Buckminster Fuller "Mistake Mystique," "Education Automation," and Intuition.

l’Autre is completely handmade by Bour and Zurne. It can be read two-sided. The text is Dutch and French. This book is two books in one; the middle section connects the works from both artists.

I have chosen a range of textures, colours, objects, paintings, photographs, prints, stereo blocks to weave into a poem in the pages of my book. For me, sea, sky, land, old things, new things, people, machines, letters and words all contribute to the tapestry that is the creative matrix. In my home there are 45 years of found objects that inspire, fascinate, adorn, intrigue, appeal, and simply just look interesting. Some of these represent our heritage -- their decoration, their materials and their purpose all so different from what we use today.

It is my intention that the book may be laid out, in any order, on a flat surface and read. My matrix shows one way of placement of the pages -- 5 pages across and 5 pages down, making 25 pages in all. The object and the box are the binding and the cover. Gravity holds it all together.

Skim is a concept book about motivation. The binding is an idea of mine. I have used one of our objects, the size and weight of it to be the "binding". Each of the 30 books has different photographs and different paintings, and of course a different object sitting on top as the "binding". photos.

I work in book form because of the natural relationship between the book and the communication of information. Our visual vocabulary developed simultaneously with the development of the book. They have worked together for over a thousand years to encapsulate information, to preserve it and to pass it forward. Books also allow me to present a sequence; a book must be viewed spread by spread, and consequently I am able to guide the viewer through the piece in my own way, pacing their experience with folded pages, layered imagery and text.

Biography is an examination of the chemical elements in the human body and the roles they play elsewhere in the world. This book grew out of my desire to use the periodic table, our visual method of categorizing every particle of matter in the universe, as a tool for creating a portrait of a human being, the viewer of the book. We are composed of a finite number of elements, each of which has a rich life outside of our bodies making up critical components of the physical world and the tools that we produce and use to measure and investigate that world. Each chemical element present in the human body is identified early in the book as a rectangle of specific color. Spreads in the book present diagrams describing these elements as they exist in the periodic table, the earth's crust, seawater, and a selection of man-made weapons, medicines and tools. The colored rectangles are present throughout the diagrams in the book, which are sometimes difficult to decode and are increasingly interrupted by blind stamped organic shapes and pressure printing.

Tarn belongs to a secret lineage in modern poetry: the ecstatic erudites. Along with such predecessors as MacDiarmid, Rukeyser, and Rexroth, his poetry is a conjunction of eroticism, radical politics, Eastern philosophy and Western mysticism, world myth and the world’s arts, contemporary science, and precise descriptions of the natural world. The poem is the place for everything, complex thoughts are presented directly, simple things find new words, and all the stuff of the world is there to celebrate or excoriate, but above all, to investigate.
--Eliot Weinberger

The text pages consist of twelve unbound folios which open to 14 by 18 inches. Each of the twelve folios has been painted by hand on both front and back using sumi ink and salt by Carolee Campbell, making each book unique. The poems are printed on and alongside the artwork.

The type is hand set Van Dijck with Weiss Initials Series I for the display & printed on dampened Domestic Etching on a Vandercook Universal I flatbed proof press. The folios are held in a goat parchment cover. The skins were processed by hand at Pergamena in Montgomery, New York. The book is protected by a hard-sided chemise wrapper covered in a deep green Asahi Japanese silken cloth. A slipcase is covered in a natural-colored linen. It holds the book and its chemise.

The design, presswork, and binding are by Carolee Campbell at Ninja Press. The edition is comprised of 85 numbered copies, signed by both poet and artist with an additional 10 lettered hors commerce.

This work operates along the lines of a simple premise: virtually all of the work that I do that references painting starts with the found image. I apply various materials and processes to these images, but I never add any colour apart from some form of black. To the greatest extent I allow the colours and forms, somehow already present in the images, to realign themselves as new structures. This is done through the application of an opaque covering of black to mask out appropriate areas.

I have always been interested in the ways in which the apparatus that orbits the art object in terms of catalogues, magazines and critical texts operates to generate authority, meaning and value and the ways in which artists can subvert or at least comment upon these relationships. With this particular work I am interested in using the art historical, catalogue format to promote the possibility of another history of art, or of a history as yet unknown to the general viewer (or indeed the connoisseur).

This work involves simply covering areas of an image with permanent black ink from a marker pen. In this case each intervention is essentially a one-off event and there is no opportunity to revise an image other than to add more ink -- mistakes (if there are such things) cannot be rectified but they can be covered up. The process involves the creation of negative space as a positive action and construction through negation. The work could be considered a careful defacing of images from art history and has its roots in Duchamp's notion of the assisted readymade and his drawing of a moustache on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa, but it also references tagging and street graffiti in the use of the black marker pen.

I simply look for unusual objects and constructions within the original images and pull these into focus by removing the visual information that surrounds them. The work references and acts upon the language and the history of painting and the resulting images, to a degree, appear to have some relationship to painting -- they masquerade as paintings, or rather as reproductions of paintings, but reproductions of paintings that only exist in a parallel history. In many ways this work relates as much to sculpture as it does to painting as I use the original visual material to construct new, and to a large degree, tangible objects in space rather than painterly marks.

In some cases the intervention is easily discernible and a suspicion is quickly raised as to the authenticity of the images. However, in other cases the permanent ink of the marker pen closely mimics the glossy quality of the original reproductions to such an extent that to the casual viewer the resulting hybrid appears to be a printed image rather than a hand drawn intervention. For some of these images therefore a sense of gravitas and authenticity is promoted where it might be claimed that the image is truly the one stated in the associated text on the facing page. This rereading of the image in relation to the text promotes correspondences between the two that become either impossible to reconcile or form a new and surprising relationship in the mind of the viewer. The relationship between the hand-drawn and the copy (and any sense of a simulacrum) becomes a tangled web of complexity as the marker pen mimics the look of the reproduction. The process does not involve any reproduction of an original, but operates within some sense of mimicry of its status as a copy and uses this, oddly enough, in the promotion of a new object. The apparent copy (the altered catalogue image) promotes the idea that there is an original (a painting in the exhibition that the catalogue refers to) that it was made from. However, of course, there is no original being referred to but rather the apparent copy (the altered catalogue image) is the original. There is a strange time reversal here where the apparent copy exists (is literally produced) before the non-existent original it refers to.

Certe cose non si dicono translates from the Italian as "certain things are not said". The dual covers of the book, which meet at the middle, depict profiles in silhouette. The book opens from the centre. It can be viewed in the traditional way by turning the pages or it can be viewed standing open to highlight the idea of a stage setting and performance. When the covers are turned back two printed profiles can be viewed. On opening the concertina pages it becomes evident that the profiles are engaged in conversation with words flowing across the pages and colliding with each other. As the concertina pages are expanded, a third profile sits at the base of the book with the dialogue floating and converging above it. From this profile we have an explosion of words, a consequence of things that, perhaps, should not have been said.

Pathways is a limited edition artist's book exploring the interior landscape of a relationship in flux. The organic shapes within the pages hint at both neurology and geography. Turning the pages echoes the experience of focusing a microscope, layer by layer on a dense, complex slide.

The idea of giving order to personal experience through the use of mapping, charting, and numbering is an important underlying theme that runs through much of my work. These systems of organization allow me to present content in ways that can be understood and translated through the reader's own life experience. An essential part of my creative process involves a deep investigation of my understanding of and response to a chosen topic or concept through a combination of research, personal observation and inquiry, and intensive exploration in the studio of various ways to express my ideas through writing and image-making in purposeful combination with the physical form of the book. Enclosures such as boxes, along with the corresponding concept of creating a fully self-contained world within the piece, also play a major role in the presentation of my bookworks.

I use the crafts of letterpress printing and hand bookbinding, combined with more modern technologies such as photopolymer plates and laser cutting, to create work that is often designed digitally, but produced with an intense attention to the materiality of the resulting piece. For me, the physical manifestation of the book is often of equal importance to the visual and textual ideas expressed within the pages in conveying meaning and in affecting the experience of the reader/viewer. This experience begins with the initial perception of the container for a piece, and continues through the process of reading/viewing and through the manipulation of the piece's structure and materials. My personal definition of the book is quite broad, with boundaries that are in constant flux. At the core of my interpretation is the act of reading, and the element of time that is essential to this act.

A Guide To Higher Learning examines the experiential process of acquiring knowledge, on both academic and personal levels. The piece is comprised of 8 sections of rigid square pages that are hinged together in unexpected ways, giving the reader a physical reading experience that mirrors the complex meaning of the content.

As the text is read, the panels are rolled over thus revealing layers of visual information including complex mathematical equations, origami crease fold patterns, and an image of the shape of the galaxy. The panels themselves are organized to fold out into a large geometric pattern of squares during the reading process. The experience for the reader is one that begins with a clear and guided written narrative, and ends with a beautiful and mysterious visual display.

Poem text by Susan Weiner: "It's always safe within the garden wisteria and morning glory covered walls worry and doubt lose their power spinning on the tip of a needle counting angels."

As I have worked through my interest in this topic, book structures have suggested themselves as appropriate vehicles of expression. Since we typically interact with books in sections, in a specific order, over time, they have a sequential nature that lends itself to treatments of temporality. We don't take them in all at once as we might a painting or drawing. Once I began working with books, however, I ran into two problems: (1) Many book structures have definite points of beginning and ending, and they would not work if I wanted to represent cyclical processes, and (2) showing books in a gallery space is problematic. Books usually call for a degree of human interaction that is not likely, practical, or even possible in such a setting.

I needed a structure that could appear to have no beginning or end and one that could display most of its contents without much handling. I have found several structures that fit the bill, including the stiff leaf binding, which I used for Seasons. A stiff leaf book is sturdy and sculptural. It can remain open in various positions. It displays its signatures entire without the inconvenience of a gutter. And its covers are typically indistinct from its pages, both structurally and visually. Seasons can be handled as a book, flipped through from cover to cover, or arranged as a sculpture with four faces that can be viewed in the round without beginning or end.

I decided on a very simple and obvious content, four seasonal landscapes in Japanese paper collage, but I also wanted to include a text, as befits a book. I chose leaves as my set of symbols. They are the pages on which plants write their recurring chemical story and together they constitute a book of their own, an articulate book that we can all read on some level. The association of paper, pages and leaves is an obvious one, and I have toyed with the idea over the years of creating a book whose pages are leaves, but for now I have settled for including a representative leaf on the right side of each landscape. The leaf is a label that mediates between the viewer and the landscape.

On paper: New paper has always intimidated me. On the other hand, printed paper is an endless source of re-useable material.

On words: Printed words are chosen one by one, uprooted, cast aside for what they might imply. Then they're chosen again and lined up to say what I'm thinking.

On works on paper: I harvest cast-off paper. My treasures are engraving tests, printing leftovers, failed photocopies, ruined book pages, event programs, etc. This obsession with re-using printed material, keeping bits of photos, making the most of a word is a perpetual game for me. Starting with collage and then drawing, I try to give new life and emotion to something which began as a commercial medium. I see huge amounts of paper and words used and abused to push someone's message or another's idea. My works attempt to push us to see the potential in material which we toss aside too easily.

I am inspired by the Russian avant-garde and by the Dadaist movement. In particular, I admire the work of Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters. Closer to home, I am very interested in Candy Jernigan's and Robert Rauschenberg's works. My artwork is based on and developed using an instinctive approach. After years of drawing, gouache and collage, a short bookbinding workshop led me to artists' books, something I added to my other creative works on paper as an end product of my artistic work.

Re-working messages, the meaning of words and images, taking everyday communication and pushing it further -- that's my approach. I source my material everywhere, transforming it so that my energy takes over.

For this specific entry: Within the Book Art Object 2 project (Australia) and using Claire Beynon's poetry, this work reveals paper's tactile and emotional beauty. I added a "paper specimens" section, highlighting paper's tangible pleasures. I used different types of printing and papers.

#2 Balsam Crescent, like all of the books in the "Suburbia" series, is a marriage of form and content. The modified double accordion structure allows the book to stand upright as if it were an actual bungalow with the roof removed. From this angle, the viewer can be a kind of omniscient observer of the family drama unfolding below. At one end of the opened book, we see two figures, back to back, absorbed in their own thoughts. They are almost dwarfed by the pattern of overlapping squares that is not only reminiscent of '60s style, but also speaks to the complexity of the adult world they livein. At the other end of the bungalow children are cooking. Are they being forced to look after themselves, or are they trying to make a romantic meal to get their parents back together?

Dream Journal is an attempt to capture a remembered world. Words cannot be spoken or read in dreams, but a sense of communication can be felt upon awakening. The suspension of the book on the wall is necessary as it relates to each who has paced in the night, allowing the walls to absorb both laughter and cries. Dream catchers have been used to filter dreams, but this book simply collects them.

El Poder gobierna.

Nacemos y somos poderosos porque en nuestras relaciones y conexiones, en la comunicación y los contactos, ejercemos esa especial fuerza, con la que todos, sin excepción, venimos al mundo.

Para algunos ese Poder es habilidad, para otros dominio ó voluntad, y hasta persuasión, para la mayoría el poder es control, sobre los demás o sobre sí mismos.

Pero el poder ha llegado a superar esa fuerza que lo engendró, porque el Poder incorpora otra energía. La fuerza es material, física, se disipa cuando llega la razón. Sin embargo, la única manera de perder poder es, dejando de ser; lo contrario del poder es la debilidad.

Podemos vencer si usamos la fuerza, pero cuando te impones mediante el Poder, siempre triunfas. Es por esto que no existe otra manera de relacionarte que a través del Poder, porque cuando te acercas; te aproximas, abrazas o dependes, te unes o participas, obligas y mandas, obedeces, exiges, o simplemente te comprometes, ya estás siendo y te estás sintiendo poderoso. La fuerza es física; El poder es intelectual.

Hacer Arte, constituir este libro, es la manera en la que todos los que en él participamos, hemos escogido relacionarnos con el Poder. Todas los grabados incluidos en esta compilación, ilustran los diferentes aspectos de Las Relaciones de Poder, en sus múltiples aristas: el poder de la mente, el poder de la voluntad, el poder adquisitivo, militar o económico, el poder de la autoridad, el poder social, el poder físico, enigmático o místico... Poder al fin y al cabo, porque es una condición que nos viene por Naturaleza.

Power rules.

We are born and are powerful because in our relationships and connections, communication and contacts, we exercise that special force/energy (Power) with which all of us without exception come into this world. For some Power is skill, for others command or willpower, even persuasion. But for most Power is control either over others or themselves.

But Power has managed to overcome the force that begot it as Power incorporates yet another kind of energy. Force is material, physical, and dissipates itself when reason arrives. However, the only way to lose Power is when one ceases to be; the opposite of Power is weakness.

We can win through the use of force, but through Power we always win. This is why there is no other way to relate but through Power because when you come closer, when you embrace or depend, join or participate, force and command, obey, demand or simply commit yourself, you are already being and feeling powerful. Force is physical, Power is intellectual.

By making art and putting together this book we have chosen our way to relate to Power. All prints included illustrate, different aspects of The Relationships of Power in its various dimensions: the power of the mind, willpower, financial, military, economic power, the power of authority, social power, physical or mystical... After all Power is a natural condition.

Yamilys Brito Jorge
April 2010

Photo 2: Top row, L to R
Oscar Osmeivy Ortega (1980) S/T (Untitled); linocut
Orlando Montalbán Rodríguez (1976) S/T (Untitled); linocut
Jesús Reyes Romeu (Chucho) (1965) Dándole vuelta (Turn it around); linocut
Jannette Brossard Duharte (1973) Cerrando apuestas (Betting on the horses); linocut

Bottom row, L to R
Isolina Limonta Rodríguez (1955) Poder Invertido (Reversed power); etching
Alejandro Sainz Ramos (1966) S/T (Untitled); lithography
Dania Fleites Díaz (1966) S/T (Untitled); linocut
Norberto Marrero Pírez (1966) S/T (Untitled); linocut

Photo 3: Top row, L to R
Luis Lamothe Duribe (1965) Ideología (Ideology); linocut
Steven C. Daiber (1955) Untitled; woodcut and collage
Aliosky García Sosa (1979) Untitled; linocut
Yamilys Brito Jorge (1972) Patria (Homeland); linocut over digital print

Bottom row, L to R
Eduardo Hernández Santos (1966) Animal grande se come al pequeño (Big animal eats the small one); silkscreen with watercolor
Angelmaidelín Calzadilla Fernández (1975) Relaciones de Poder (Relationship of Power); silkscreen
Hanoi Pérez Cordero (1976) Untitled; silkscreen
Darexis Valle Rodriguez (1985) Untitled; linocut

Papeles is a visual poetry artist's book which has its starting point in an original typewritten text from the artist during his stays in the eighties in Paris, Koblenz and Madrid. At Editorial Krausse he published a limited edition of 20 + 2 H.C., hand-bound, signed and numbered, digital printing, incl. German and English translation. Cover design: red foil stamp of an old handmade telephone stamp on blue hardcover.

The artist Adrian de Brosquiles is the alter ego of the artist Enrique Rodrigo Mancho.

In all stages of our bookmaking process, there is dialogue. We spend most of the year apart, and then twice a year we meet for concentrated time together: once generally in the winter when we travel for images and to focus in on a text(s), and then in the summer to finalize layouts, screenprint and bind. During the first concept stage nothing is edited, everything is considered. Next, we write each other emails and talk on the phone until the book begins to take shape. The dialogue continues into the production stages. Working this way, we both add and edit, challenging each other to create a work beyond what either of us could have imagined on our own. Making artists' books collaboratively is always surprising. In the end, the book has a life of its own, and its needs are what matter most.

Risk/Risiko is a screenprinted accordion book by Daniela Deeg and Cynthia Lollis comparing life's risks to gambling. Seven categories of risks are explored via statistics: Relationships, Water, Money, Travel, Career, Health, and Nature. The first line of text is from a journal entry written in 1857 by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, and the second is a Russian proverb. Tolstoy describes a gambling loss, where as the proverb on the book's reverse side demonstrates a luckier aspect of risk.

Photographs, taken by the artists, feature sites and objects from famous gambling cities found in their two respective countries: Baden-Baden (Germany) and Las Vegas (USA). Risk/Risiko is the seventh book by ETC Press that has been printed at the Frans Masereel Centrum in Kasterlee, Belgium.

The book project Drone/1,2,3 comprises three pamphlet-stitched books collected in a presentation tin along with a three dimensional image object of a universal remote. The project deals with remote projections of power through metaphors developed around three meanings of the word "drone": a male bee, a dull noise, and remote control military apparatus.

Drone 1, based on the drone as the sluggish male bee who lives off the work of the hive, creates new images of colonial history. Drone 2, based on the metaphor of history as droning white noise, juxtaposes images of the good life in the United States with watercolors of violent scenes. Drone 3 reflects on current events such as the use of drones for combat, video games which desensitize children to remote killing, and suicide bombings which are also a form of remote warfare. The books are structured so that between each full page is a half page: as one flips through the books, each image spread is modified by the half-page flap to create new juxtapositions.

The photographs and drawings are by the artist except those from colonial histories. The project was published in an edition of 250 by Visual Studies Workshop Press in 2010. The 9x12 inch tin holds the three 8.5x8.5 inch 36 page books along with the 8.5x2 inch remote controller. This remote, which is in fact the one for my television, looks normal but the logos have been meticulously relabeled for other purposes: Aim, Kill, Counter/agt Intel, IED menu, Docum't/Victim, Kafir Select, Deploy UVA/IED, Survey/Display, IED Sel Road, Detonate... This reflects the banality of evil so aptly described by Hannah Arendt.

Drone/1,2,3 is very interactive in nature, requiring actual hands-on exploration of the bookwork to get the full esthetic and conceptual impact. Five digital slides do not communicate the time-based nature of this exploration of the 36 interactive spreads.

Image 2: These spreads from the first book, Drone 1, based on the drone as a male bee, creates new images of colonial history. As the half page is flipped back and forth the explorers appear and disappear hinting at an alternate version of colonial history.

Image 3: These spreads from the second book, Drone 2, based on the white noise of a drone, juxtaposes images of the good life in the United States with watercolors of violent scenes. As the half page is flipped the image changes from one depicting pleasant watercolors of seascapes to one revealing watercolors scenes of political violence in black and white.

Image 4: These spreads from the third book, Drone 3 reflects on current events such as the use of drones for combat, video games which desensitize children to remote killing, and suicide bombings which are also a form of remote warfare. In this spread, as the half page is flipped, the scene changes from one depicting my child peacefully sleeping to a picture of spilled Cheerios, milk, and the disturbing image of a Pakistani man carrying his dead child away after a suicide bombing.

Image 5: In this spread from Drone 3, as the half page is flipped the scene changes from one depicting a display of toys set in a New York City street to one where the toys are burning in a large blaze which dominates the page. The image was made by photographing the set up, setting it on fire and rephotographing it as it burned.

Are We there Yet? is mixed-media/collage on canvas that was created entirely from discarded books. I use the covers, binding, spines and fly pages along with black tea and archival pen to create my collages. Paper is ubiquitous in modern culture and I use it as a unifier, reminding us that we're connected by common sensibilities and common materials. This piece came directly from the emotional experience of selling my home in Los Angeles and relocating to Louisville, KY. The grief, sadness and anxiety I felt about leaving my family and friends along with the excitement, curiosity and thrill of re-invention is why I needed to create this one-of-a-kind piece.

While my work is attentive to the possibilities of a rich and detailed surface, my intention is to use the archival pen among the pieces of books to beckon the viewer to look closer and deeper into the piece and acknowledge a more subtle dimension that lies beneath it.

My collages are abstract yet familiar -- even comforting -- constructed as they are of common materials that resonate and evoke shared memories, stirring a déjà vu in our collective unconscious.

In my "Reading Guide" series, familiar texts, such as Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet and Hawthorn's The Scarlet Letter, are presented in a box along with a series of paper templates. These templates corrospond to the book pages, with each page having its own template. The templates are hand-cut to reveal certain information: in the case of the The Tragedy of Hamlet, the black templates highlight Hamlet's lines while the red templates highlight Ophelia's. By distinguishing a specific role, these altered books aim to visually map out the extent of a single character's impact within a larger narrative. Some interesting observations can be made: for instance, many readers are surprised to see just how few lines the memorable Ophelia speaks.

These reading guides are meant to accompany the reading of classic texts as a way of visually digesting literary information. An ideal location for these guides is in a rare book room or research collection that focuses on that particular author with the hope that this research tool can be used with other research techniques.

The repeated text is tied to the cotton thread every 40 cm, rolled into a scroll and placed in a clamshell box especially designed for the scroll.

The text was selected because the source of the text is a book published in the 1950s in South Africa, and puts forward a set of mottos for the promotion of the Afrikaner culture in terms of the socio-political prevalent in South Africa at the point in my history. The book does not however put forward discrimination of any kind but rather just the growth and promotion of an Afrikaner lifestyle, strongly connected to the religious doctrine of the time. The text has been sampled from this historic environment and put forward in the current socio-political landscape, where a younger generation of Afrikaners are either abandoning a social history or become almost militant in the preservation of the social history. It is important to note that the preservation are sometimes mistaken for racism by the followers.

The cotton thread used to bind the motto/mantra together becomes an type of Ariadne's thread, which Ariadne gave to Theseus in his quest to kill the Minotaur. The thread in this case is focused on the idea of exploration and investigation, but still maintaining an awareness of historic and social identity.

I enjoy working with and exploring various ways to use vellum and parchment materials. Themes of the classical and antique appeal to me, especially when I can place them together. Vellum has a mysterious quality in that it is not constant -- it flattens, it billows, it curls and uncurls, depending on current atmospheric conditions. It is also a lovely material to touch.

It is interesting when the viewers are allowed to hold my books in their hands and can have a full experience rather than just looking at the book through a case. Watching them feel the materials, staring at the images, trying to read the text or understanding the concept of the book is something I find fascinating.

This miniature book narrates some of the questions I ask myself when I feel Lost. The maps represent that sometimes I feel lost even in my own city. The four maps are from my hometown (Monterrey, Mexico). The first one is a farther-out view and it zooms in all the way to my home address as the tunnel progresses.

Most of what we collect is trash by someone else's standards. Yet each individual views his or her clutter as a treasure trove. Clutter offers a series of clues to help one decipher paths taken, and not taken, on the journey through a materialistic society. We all know we can't take anything with us when our journey ends. In spite of that -- or perhaps because of it -- we fill our drawers and closets with evidence of our existence: photographs, ticket stubs, matchbooks from favorite restaurant, etc. That clutter could be considered in some ways a meaningful subtext to our lives.

In "Clutter", the narrator initially despairs of overwhelming clutter: "Piles grow and stacks aspire to press against the ceiling." After a fire rescues her from this inertia, she finds freedom and begins the journey of an ascetic. In "Free", the narrator speaks as a monk, sharing wisdom gained. A recurring theme is gain and loss, including the things we gain through loss, such as transcendence.

Reading "Clutter" is like solving a puzzle. The text appears on 16 different objects in the drawer, with numbers guiding the narrative sequence. The reader must empty or dig through the clutter drawer, in search of items with text printed on them. The objects in the "Clutter" drawer serve as tangible illustrations that also, in some cases, make sounds or give off scents. For example, in the clutter drawer is a bell and an Altoids tin with mints. Since I created Clutter/Free as an edition of 25, much of the clutter in the drawer is manufactured to complete the edition with identical objects. However, the clutter gives the appearance of being unique, from an actual clutter drawer.

"Free" is housed in a compartment on the top of the box. One word floats sparingly on each page, letterpress printed from wood type or photopolymer plates made from gravestone rubbings or hand-drawn text. The paper varies from Japanese kozo to heavyweight Rives, which adds an unexpectedness to the book that requires the reader to slow down, become more deliberate and aware as he/she turns each page. The text starts out as bright saffron and gradually fades to nothing.

Many of my artist books involve boxes. I'm interested in the way a box creates a stage for the book, which is critical especially for books that have a performance quality to them, as does Clutter/Free. The reader is required to participate in the performance. My work is meant to engage the reader emotionally, intellectually, and physically, for a truly interactive experience.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: This image shows the book when closed. Clutter/Free is housed within a modified dos-a-dos structure in the form of a box that opens from two sides.

Image 2: In this image, the "Free" section of the box is open to reveal a post-bound book with the title "Free" on the cover. This sparse book features one letterpress printed word on each page, and the paper varies between thin Japanese handmade paper and heavyweight Rives, to force the reader to slow down and read the book with full awareness. The text starts out as bright saffron on the first page and gradually fades to nothing by the last page.

Image 3: This image shows the opposite side of the box, where a drawer opens to reveal "Clutter".

Image 4: In this image you can see the assortment of clutter from the clutter drawer. Embedded within the clutter objects is the narrative of "Clutter". Each piece of text is numbered sequentially, and to read this part of the book, the reader must dig through the drawer and find the narrative. Clutter/Free is an edition of 25, with the same exact clutter in each edition.

Although this book may be viewed as therapeutic, aimed at remedying the ails of American society and culture, the goal of this work is to both question and encourage thought about specific beliefs and their existence. What do white men fear? Why do white men fear? By making hidden thoughts manifest, this book both manifests and satirizes enduring mindsets. To aid this social reflection, bold text bodies are used to exploit hidden beliefs of consumption, religion, desire, idealism, racism, isolationism, personal gain and greed.

Éditions Roselin, founded in 1993 by Jacques Fournier, proposes a site of collaboration. As a bookbinder, Fournier invites other artists to work with him in the production of artist's books that help rethink the rapport between text and image in relation to the format that houses them and the role of their public. The concept and the structure of the book are seen as the proper locus to allow words and visuals to take their full development while approached and manipulated. The artist's books published by Éditions Roselin explore other supports than paper as a medium to convey the text and its meaning and they celebrate the participation of the reader/viewer.

Reflections of a Face is a book realized in collaboration with the Montreal-based, multidisciplinary artist, Sylvia Safdie and the American-born scholar and poet Eric Ormsby, now living in London. The photographs of Safdie have inspired the specialist of Islamic culture a text on the humanity of a culture captured by the artist on the face of this ageless figure of a Moroccan elder. The book suggests the accumulation of time by inserting the text between two impressions of the images showing two moments of his spiritual life. Printed on a transparent paper the layering of images and words evokes their fusion on the features of this unique character.

Wrong Size Fits All, 2010
6 x 9 x .75"; 112 pages. Photographs, writing, design, digital collage, printing, and binding by the artist. Offset printed on a Heidelberg GTO onto Monadnock Dulcet 100# text paper. Printed in cmyk, duotones, quadtones, etc. Exposed seam binding with three leather straps. Printed boards.

The title is a play on words from the expression "one size fits all" and the implication is that nothing is perfect, that in life there is always some unexpected issue that presents itself to change things.

What is the book about? It's about a lot things but basically about the deaths of my sister and dad within a two year period. One of the joys of my life was to visit my sister, who had been a great influence on me as is reflected at the beginning of chapter one. The book, through the brief poetic writing, does not refer specifically to her death rather to the feelings I experienced thinking of her and how she influenced me.

The chapters' beginnings and endings are determined by the signatures. In other words, chapter one is the first signature, etc. The conceptual leaps between the chapters, rather than being subtle segues, reflect the abrupt changes in thoughts that we have that are sometimes incomprehensible at first.

One thing that the writing about my dad is meant to convey was my inability to come to terms in a sympathetic way to his decline.

During the printing I used the specific creative potential of offset lithography to make some of the images. In other words a lot of the images were created by various combinatory and chance operations while printing, while I maintained strict curatorial control. I am inspired by the layering and flow and structure of music and tried to reflect this in the dense layering of imagery that occurs in the book. I chose the exposed spine binding because it allows the pages to lie as flat as possible. The book should be placed on a table for viewing, rather than held up in the hands.

The Axi, one of the 27 branches of Yi, celebrate the Axi Fire Festival to honor Mu Deng, the man who brought them fire. Legend has it that once when the naked Axi were hunting, heavy rains came down, sending them to shelter under an old tree. An old wizard, Mu Deng, appeared, rubbed some dry wood together and started a fire. The Axi were no longer cold and learned how to cook food.

I printed my own photographs and mounted them onto other prints or cardstock. I hand cut, engineered, assembled and bound the work myself. I bound the book in black Iris cloth.

I make one-of-a-kind pop up artist's books that combine my photography with pop-up paper engineering. Pop-up and flap books originally illustrated ideas about astronomy, fortune telling, navigation, anatomy of the body and other scientific principles. This history prompted me to construct my own books reflecting ideas on how our selves relate to society today. Initially, the challenge of creating pop-up books -- having to construct something that physically would fold down into a confined space -- helped limit what I could create. Experience and experimentation have forced me to think otherwise; as I problem-solve, the paper takes over and leads beyond what I thought was physically possible. My pop-ups are a way for me to speak and inform; the real and implied motion in the pop-ups link to a temporal element, and an inevitable corollary is to awe and unsettle. With pop-up books I want to eliminate the boundaries between book, installation, photography, craft and sculpture.

The book consists of 9 personal image-stories about her research that are intertwined:

1: A short Ikebana story
12:30, leaving for Yogyakarta
In my bag I have the the 300 year old "Neues Blumenbuch" by the German flower painter Maria Sibyllia Merian who travelled in the late summer of 1699 to Surinam to research and draw the exotic flora and fauna. She writes, "The people here feel no need to research such thing, they make fun of me because I go out to the jungle to search for something else as sugar." This book guides me as a companion for 3 months through the tropics and its rainy season. In reaction to the pages of the book I made several constructions and bouquets with local flowers and plants.

2: Gradient skies ahead
17:00
We walk to the edge of the city. The horizon is a gradient stroke that draws a circle around us.

3: Into the night
02:00
I get up, gently shut the door and tiptoe over the morning-lawn, walk down the street, up the hill & past the banana forest into the night.

4: Under the volcano 6:00
Early morning, opening the window shutters. The Merapi volcano has erupted and spew its ash over the land. The garden turned grey, the trees turned grey and the city turned grey. Most colors disappeared for weeks in the ash-covered city, under the volcano.

5: White lemonade Sundays

6: The blank spot in the middle of the day

7: Black Hill Herbarium
12:00, the biology museum.
Lunchtime. We are standing on a tiled floor, surrounded with boxes filled with dried plants, in front of us a black closed box called 'unidentified'. Me and the man of the museum, both wearing white gloves and dust masks open it. Inside we find galaxy and geometric shaped seaweeds and plants found throughout the archipelago and the deep seas surrounding her over hundreds of years ago. These are plants without family and without a name.

8: Soda
14:30 On the roof deck, in the shade.
If I were to write you a letter with images about the place I am at right now it would somewhat look like this.

9: Morning lawn
05:50
I go out for a walk.
Everything here is filled with geometrical patterns. The street tiles, the facades and my notebooks. A simple geometrical shape acts as a narrator of stories. A triangle tells an old story about a man and a mountain, a circle about the eye of the earth and the diamond tells the story about a journey into the heart of distance.

SODA PALM SUITE
CMYK 100 % replaced with phosphorescent color
Hardcover edition: 300 (1 unique work inside), released: April 2011. 144 pages.
Design: Adriaan Mellegers & Karen van de Kraats
Made possible by FBKVB en Heden
Hotel Insomnia Publications 2011

I work two-dimensionally, beginning with pen and india ink drawings on paper. These drawings are combined with geometric elements, halftones, and digital methods to create screen prints. The hand printing process gives the work greater spontaneity that balances the careful rendering in the initial drawing. I enjoy working with bold, saturated colors, printing them one over the other and varying ink opacities to achieve a wide range of color. The images I create are graphic, use intricate line-work, and take into consideration rhythm and space. I enjoy working loosely from text, poetry, music, themes that form the basis of my creative process.

When I came across Der Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann, I fell in love with the characters and the overall playful, morbid mood of the book. Originally published in German in 1844, the book contains ten gruesome and whimsical cautionary tales for children, each one overly exaggerating the consequences for misbehavior. What I love about stories such as these is that they're not necessarily for children today, but they occupy that space where children's and adults' worlds overlap. I am very interested in working in that space, as I think we tend to carry our childhood with us throughout our adult lives.

As the recipient of the Fall 2010 artist residency at Spudnik Press in Chicago, my project consisted of illustrating, screen printing and hand-binding an edition of books based on the English translation of Struwwelpeter. I was not interested in rewriting or changing the stories, I wanted to re-envision them and adapt them to my own drawing style and creative process. Moreover, I was particularly interested in exploring the book form. I wanted to challenge myself in a way that utilized all the skills I was familiar with, such as drawing and screen printing, but at the same time created a situation where I would be faced with a learning curve. Besides having to learn bookbinding methods and perfect them to best of my abilities, I had to learn about layout, planning, and construction of an entire book.

Over five months in development, it has been amazing to watch the project develop from simple pencil thumbnails to a completed, hardbound book. There are 58 books in the edition, each one containing 36 hand-sewn pages of alternating verse and full color screen prints, bound and encased in a full cloth printed cover. Struwwelpeter was released at Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago in February 2011, and has since been exhibited at the SGC International Conference, North Branch Projects, Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, Spudnik Press, as well as featured in Time Out Chicago, the Chicagoist, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Gaper's Block. It is in a number of public and private collections.

This alphabet was cut in wood and I did not try to relate letters to words. I rather decided to let the form take lead and use my particular way of making images. My images come from nature, the nature that surrounds the place where I live, an island in the Caribbean looking at the sea. So my forms have all to do with identity; although I know it is not in fashion these days, identity is very dear to my heart.

I have been a printmaker since the 1970s. I started making books around 1990 and it has been my prefered way of expression. Doing books by hand gives me the opportunity to play and experiment until I can finally get what I want, something I cannot do when I design a book for industry. There is an involvement with the physical labor involved in the production. This finally gets reflected in the particular esthetics and the way the typography and the woodblocks set their imprint on the paper. My books also carry my own iconography related to my own surroundings, the nature, the people and my personal experiences.

Bjerke:
Book arts and wood carving are slow processes in a fast world. The pleasure I find in the tools and materials of these arts is a real and tactile connection with the artists of past generations. An additional satisfaction is in preserving these arts for our present age. My years in both areas have been satisfying and rewarding. After learning about historical book structures I was delighted to combine book making and wood carving, the two areas of art I've come to love.

Historically in Greenland, the lack of ordinary materials like wood and metal, and even fiber for cordage, has made materials found on the beach or acquired through trade of great value. For this work, the sculptural vocabulary was chosen from primarily found material: wild harvested dogbane for cordage, driftwood for covers, scrap metal and horse bone, scavenged wood for the game board. The objects, making abstract reference to the poem, allow the reader to re-experience the poem tactilely, and also participate in the telling of the story by arranging the objects on the game board.

In my book, I cut the books in the shapes of traditional Chinese park windows; this kind of window contains Chinese culture and imperial garden art. Inside the windows I use the photos of the streetlight of Beijing's night. My point is that Beijing has a very long history, and changed time by time; today when people look through the windows, they see not only the beautiful night scene, but also see how the modern world affected this old city. My book is like my way to see and feel the city where I was born, grew up and still live; it seems like Beijing is a place full of ancient stories but very modern inside its heart.

Carleton's first such student was Frank Shigemura, who enlisted after one great year at Carleton. He served in the Japanese unit, the 442nd, and was killed in France. After the war, his parents were released and returned to Seattle. They appreciated what Carleton had done for their son, so they began a string of contributions to the College. This added up over the years, until the College President discovered that they were living in poverty and were giving a large portion of their income to the school. He tried (without success) to discourage them from any more contributions. Carleton has a scholarship in his name, and a room in his honor in our memorial hall. When the Shigamuras died they left anything they had to Carleton.

The book is about this tremendous family and what they did in the face of one of the great injustices of our history. Most of the book's text is from archival letters, including those of Mrs. Shigemura to the school.

A sample of the text -- a letter from Mrs. Shigemura to a Carleton Dean: "We deeply feel honored in having Frank's picture in a memorial booklet honoring Carleton College gold star men. It is hard to realize that Frank will never return. I can only say that I am grateful that he was able to serve his country, God and us all. I shall always be proud to be the mother of a true American. Frank has often mentioned in his letters about the fair treatment and kindness he received from both the faculty and the students of Carleton College. I cannot find words adequate enough to fully express our thanks. We are ever and ever so grateful to you all."

deeply honored uses archival texts and photos, is printed in silkcreen, in a binding of Japanese silk in an edition of 25.

In my work I strive to translate everyday experiences through my power of fantasy, and defamiliarize them into an imaginary world where different memories encounter each other. My imaginary world observes carefully by looking into the smallest details of each memory. It longs for others or the unknown, and feels the possibility and impossibility of reaching them.

My work is slow and organic, modest, it does not shout statements. It has many faces of contrasting moods and emotions. It invites the viewer gradually into my imaginary world. My work attempts to suggest that a world of imagination is right next to your everyday life, a strange or uncanny yet very familiar world, because I strongly believe that it can enrich senses of our everyday living.

The presented work was created after two field researches conducted in fishermen's village in the Netherlands (2003-2005) and in Japan (2007-2008). The work is reflections of collected memories and a new imaginary world woven from those reflections. Since the bookwork and the spatial work with wall drawings & text, 3D objects, animation and sound were simultaneously developed, they interrelate and together deepen the world of mirrored memories.

Text and extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: The cover page of the work mirrored memories. Thin milo paper is used to keep the atmosphere of the original drawing. The title "MIRRORED MEMORIES" and artist's name are printed mirrored on the back side of this page, and read "normally" on the cover.

Image 2: Page spread: (L) an recent image of a fishermen's village in Japan, printed photo which got discolored by salt water. (R) an old image of a fishermen's village in the Netherlands, printed photo with cut out and mirrored text. You can see a part of the next image through cut out. As you turn to the next page, you will see the other image through the cut out. The text is a conversation between grandmother and her granddaughters: "Grandma we are gonna go for a walk in the snowy white forest!" "Okay girls, watch out for the telatrionscope!"

Image 3: Page spread: (L) drawing with the mirrored text "mountain hair thoughts repeating"; you can read this text "normally" on the previous page. (R) drawing with cut-out with the story which is printed mirrored on the page next. Text: We are in the norigian fantasy post box forest. It is a snowy night. "Hello snowmushroomouse, what a sweet smell of your snowmushroom pie!", the right girl says. "Hello big girl, if you show me your nice steps i will invite you for a nice cup of tea and a piece of snowmushroom pie!", the snowmushroomouse replies. And the right girl answers, "It would be lovely snowmushroomouse!"

Image 4: Installation view: different images and text from the bookwork mirrored memories are drawn on the wall together with 3D objects in the space. The mirrored text on the wall says: "mountain hair thoughts repeating".

Image 5: Installation view: the bookwork spreads into the space.

The book is bound using the drum leaf structure, but is evocative of a mid-19th century binding in its use of materials and decorative elements: leather spine, marbled paper, decorated edge, gold tooling and titling. The large page size mirrors that of Sloan's work. The Model Architect: The Panic Of '09 is one of six winners of the Building by the Book competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Athenaeum and Philadelphia Center for the Book.

From the colophon:

Samuel Sloan's The Model Architect was published at the midpoint of a century marked by cycles of rampant speculation followed by financial collapse. The Panic of 1857 came on the heels of publication of Sloan's work, and put a halt to the most active portion of his career.

This milieu mirrors what has happened in my own neighborhood of modest homes over the past fifteen years. The transformation began with some owners remodeling their kitchen, or adding a family room or bedroom. Then larger additions came. Ultimately, the houses commanded high prices to be sold as teardowns. Huge new houses were built in their places.

The construction proceeded with increasingly grandiose features; portions of the facade faced with thin sheets of stone, wooden garage doors with cast iron-like fittings, decorative copper accents on the roofs, turrets, lions flanking the brick driveways.

Now the house across the street, the house next door, and the house next door to that are all in foreclosure, and soon will be uninhabitable. The lawns grow without interruption. Without electricity and heat the basements fill with water, the pipes burst, the mechanicals are destroyed. Few modest, affordable homes remain in the neighborhood.

Current events mirror tales written by Edgar Allan Poe over one hundred and fifty years ago. Nevermore Again: Poe Exhumed pairs twelve Poe stories with equally spine-tingling stories from the news. "The Premature Burial" and the struggling economy, "The Balloon Hoax" and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, "A Tale of The Ragged Mountains" and politicians' dalliances in the Appalachian Mountains and beyond, "William Wilson" and genetically modified food, "The Black Cat" and the bravado of a former Illinois governor, "The Man that Was Used Up" and the meteoric rise of a former Alaska governor.

The typography and design for Nevermore Again: Poe Exhumed are based on the first edition of Poe's first published work, Tamerlane and Other Poems. Only twelve copies of this modest pamphlet are known to exist of the fifty printed in Boston in 1827. In binding structure and size Nevermore Again: Poe Exhumed is a facsimile of the first edition of Tamerlane.

The box was designed by Mary Hark and built in Madison at HARK! Handmade Paper Studio. The small books were printed at MCBA by Mary Hark and Jana Pullman and bound in Madison by Mary Hark. The intaglio prints, printed on Hark's paper, were printed at the Kwami-Clarkson studio in Kumasi -- the only intaglio studio in Ghana. The music CD, produced by Mary Hark, was recorded by Ben Mandelson (UK) in the courtyard studio of Koo Nimo, in Kumasi Ghana.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 3: Accordion fold book open to show letterpress lyrics in Twi and English over printed Koo Nimo's handwritten text (polymer plate) of same lyric

Image 4: Interior of box: to the left the letterpress printed colophon (printed on linen paper) tipped into the box onto paper made from papyrus and Ghanian pulp-mullberry; to the right thee of the four books: the accordion fold see open in #3, one side-sewn pamphlet containing the CD and letterpress printed liner notes for the music and one side-sewn pamphlet containing a letterpress printed essay about palm wine music and this recording. These three sit on top of the paper portfolio containing Atta Kwami's three intaglio prints (see image #5).

Image 5: Atta Kwami's three intaglio prints, printed on Hark's linen paper, with a letterpress title page on linen paper

Listen, Listen: Adadam Agofomma is the inaugural publication of Take Time Press. Published in 2011 as a limited edition of 50, it honors the extraordinary work of the Ghanaian musician, Koo Nimo. Adadam Agofomma, the name of Koo Nimo’s musical group, translates as Roots Ensemble. We believe Take Time Press and this book, is one of the few examples of fine press work being produced on the African Continent outside of South Africa, and we are very proud of the international collaboration that it represents.

Designed by Mary Hark, the book is a fine-press collection encased in a handcrafted clam-shell box. The letterpress printed contents include: one pamphlet which references a special recording session of Koo Nimo and his ensemble, and which contains a CD of music and a digital slideshow of 69 photographs taken by Amara Hark-Weber to document the event; one pamphlet with an essay about Koo Nimo and the musical session; and an accordion fold carrying the lyrics of one song interpreted in Twi and in English with evidence of Koo Nimo's handwritten script. Wrapped in a paper portfolio are three intaglio prints by Atta Kwami.

This book showcases paper hand made predominantly from botanicals harvested in Ghana. The papers, produced by Hark in Kumasi with assistance from Rita Yaboah and Michael Adashie, use pulp-mulberry, cashew, papyrus and other fibers which grow in the Ashanti Region. Atta Kwami's suite of three etching and relief prints, titled "Sound Fabric", responds to and celebrates Koo Nimo's palm wine music. The artwork was printed on Hark's linen paper by Pamela Clarkson and Atta Kwami in their Ayeduase New Site Studio near Kumasi, the only intaglio studio in Ghana. Letterpress printing was executed by Mary Hark and Jana Pullman at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ghanian linguistic scholars Samuel Kofi Darkwa and Forster Kena Asare assisted in the translation of the lyrics. Layout and typesetting were provided by Christine DeMars. The box and small books were designed by Mary Hark and constructed at HARK! Handmade Paper Studio in Madison, Wisconsin.

Mary Hark is the executive producer of the musical CD, around which this book was organized. During July of 2009, Hark and Koo Nimo invited a group of Koo Nimo's valued colleagues into his Kumasi home for two weeks of music making. Among these masterful musicians were old friends, as well as members of the emerging musical generation. Sensitively guided by world music recording producer Ben Mandelson (UK), the ensemble recorded Koo Nimo's celebrated palm wine music, a West African musical tradition that combines African percussion with Spanish guitar and calypso rhythm from Trinidad.

Papermaking in Ghana:
Since 2006, Hark has worked in Kumasi towards the development of high-quality paper made from local materials. Hark, along with Rita Yaboah, KNUST MA candidate in Art Education, and Michael Adashie, MFA, KNUST PhD candidate in Printmaking, conducted research that led them to pulp-mulberry. Brought from China in 1969 to explore the possibility of a paper industry, 14 plants languished in a forest preserve for years before drought and fires opened up the canopy and pulp-mulberry began to thrive. Now it is the most invasive, non-indigenous, woody plant in the closed forest zone -- yet also a botanical capable of producing exquisitely beautiful, strong paper. Using pulp-mulberry and other fibers, Hark and the Kumasi papermakers produce unique papers particular to the region with the integrity appropriate for fine-press printing.

This collaboration aids the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)'s efforts to deal with invasive pulp-mulberry by establishing a cottage-industry paper mill that productively uses the fiber, and it supports sustainable conservation. The project has the long-term goal of inviting local farmers to participate in the harvest and preparation of raw materials, and to train as papermakers. Friends of the project in Kumasi include horticulturists, artists, forestry professionals, farmers, and the education community.

With icebergs floating through my dreams and etched on my retinas, the determination to return to the ice led to a residency on HMS Endurance with the British Navy in 2006. This resulted in "The Wide White Page" exhibition at The Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh, adding admiralty charts into the range of papers used to represent Antarctic ice forms.

The job as Assistant Post Mistress and Penguin Monitor at Britain's southernmost post office meant a whole season of regarding the elaborate sculptural formations circling Port Lockroy. On return to Edinburgh, I created "The Walk-In Iceberg and Other Stories" at the Owl and Lion Gallery, incorporating a pleated and creased sheet of white, bisecting the room from floor to ceiling.

This Ice Cliff is an attempt in the continued drive to examine and recreate the book-like qualities of ice, expanding and subverting traditional bookbinding techniques. It is my ambition to produce more super-sized book forms exploring the Antarctic landscape.

String Theory is a suite of six knotted string drawings, inspired by historical knot illustrations, accompanied by a Carl Adamshick poem and housed in a clamshell box designed and produced by Sandy Tilcock of lone goose press. The suite features six drawings based on netting, shoe tying, and macrame; a caterpillar knot, a carrick bend and a turk's head knot. As the strings interlace, each one passes over and under elements that cross its path. I view these paths and crossings as metaphors for the physical and emotional connections and junctures in our lives.

As I trace the paths these knots make, I am drawn to the fact that they are one of the earliest and most universal of all inventions. Our ancestors tied simple knots to catch food, harness animals and make baskets. As I trace them today, I discover a meditative beauty as they lay gathered loosely embedded in the sheets of handmade paper. Each strand is a unique and individual line, carving its own path, and as it winds its way into the future, it interlocks, entangling and joining others, resulting in a whole greater than all of its parts.

There is a quiet mystery in these knots too, as the poet Carl Adamshick alludes to in the first stanza of the poem he composed for this project:
The secret wants
to hide within itself,
hold one end,
draw the other
until it's gone.

When my granddaughter, Janae, was very young she would describe people as having a variety of wonderful skin colors -- pink people, beige people, brown people and all of the varieties in-between. Her own skin is a beautiful brown color that she is very comfortable in and that makes me happy. While still quite young we had a conversation on the telephone and I remember the pained, awkward laugh she gave when we were talking about some person's beige or brown color and Janae told me that I was being silly -- people were black or white. I felt a wave of sadness, knowing someone had told her that there was a hierarchy, a division, and I so wished she didn’t have to know this yet.

For millennia, man has been fascinated by eggs as the crucible from which life emerges. As aptly stated by scholars centuries ago, "Omni Vivum ex Ovo" -- all life comes from eggs. It is the egg, the ultimate of stem cells, which is endowed with the blueprint of life. Through an intricate choreography more complex than a Balanchine ballet, that development proceeds creating a new individual. The book piece I have entitled The Oocyte Cantata in 12 Movements highlights the wonder and mystery of embodied in the "blueprints" of development encoded in the genome housed in the DNA of the egg. Each of the 12 "booklets" in this work has a quail egg shell as the cover and, emanating from it, a mini accordion book with information about the genes, programs and features of different aspects of development. Each booklet presents different facets of development of the various organs and tissues. These egg books were challenging to make. They involved cutting quail egg shells in half, reinforcing them with Japanese papers and creating paper hinges, and supporting each egg on a Black Walnut base so each book stands upright and can be easily opened. The inserted accordion book pages were printed with archival inks on rice paper and are attached to a small archival paper platform at the rear of the cover. Collectively I hope they instill in the viewer a sense of wonder of life and the marvels embodied in eggs.

For years I have been exploring the invisible "“microworld", with a piece (Serenity) in the first juried photography exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery some years ago. The visualization of this secret world depends on the interactions of natural materials with light and creative microscopy. My images have focused on various themes: "microlandscapes", explorations of textures, colors, and patterns from the perspective of the emotions evoked, and a reawakening of how we view the world and a rekindling of an appreciation of nature's wonders.

A fascination for me is using microscopy as "an artist's brush and palette", inspired by the incredible structures in nature, to create artistic works. Peep Show afforded me a special opportunity to showcase the marvels of the microscopic and biological world in a book arts milieu while highlighting the intersection of art and science. The book has 48 works, each printed using archival inks, in a folio accordion format with thick white archival board covers. Each image is an original work I have created through the techniques mentioned above. A diverse array of images was selected. The book is housed in a special presentation case made from a "traditional" microscope box with an antique microscope embedded in the cover. Revealed on the inside surface of the cover is a cut-away view of the microscope. Thus, the presentation case is integrated with the content of the book and prepares the viewer with anticipation of the worlds revealed by microscopy.

My Dear Girl,
I am getting to be an old woman now. Old enough to have imagined who it might be that comes after me. It must be you...

This message to my imagined girl, continues on to address personal and universal themes of love and loss and to offer a backward glimpse. The book has evolved from this instinct, in this spirit, and tries to give a palpable sense of one person speaking to another across the vastness of time as all books do. Other girls and other ideas have swirled their way into the visual and written narrative alluding to qualities and states, fears and joys that we most likely all share, cross generationally and cross culturally.

Complete text:

What if I write you a letter?
My story, but for you.
What if I try for Truth instead of Beauty?
What if they are the same thing?

What if I arrange the words randomly?
What if it is written at night instead of day?
What if I don't feel like it?
What if I try too hard?
What if I speak in tongues?
What if I don't try at all?

What if I speak about atoms
And sperm and egg
And the cosmos
And eternity
And the bus being missed?

Or being in Belgium instead of Spain
Or worse yet, in Ambler, Pa.
Instead of St. Mary's City, Md.?
Or New York,
Or, improbably, heaven.
Or pink instead of blue
Or clouds or babies?

Or staying in bed with a cold
Instead of venturing out
To the mailbox to be on time
For the next delivery.

What if I throw the pieces of the story
Up into the great beyond
And bear no responsibility?
What if they don't alight?
What if I miss the point?
What if my clock has stopped?
What if there is no such thing as eternity?
What if I miss you?
What if I don't?

In 1993 I shaved my head and began saving my hair. The daily ritual of rolling a hairball in the shower to later be used in my art is one way I weave my art and the everyday together. I collect hair from friends, family and strangers. I use human hair in unexpected ways: a map of the world, a book's binding, a gumball machine, a sewn outline of Africa, and a wall of tails. For me, hair represents humanity and is a rich material thick with history, genetics and societal taboos.

I made a series of women's hats and undergarments woven from paper letterpress printed with derogatory slang terms used against women. The inspiration for my second artist book, Alphabet Tricks, came out of this exploration. The culmination was a woven tapestry using all the slander in the form of the American flag.

In three previous projects I have requested audience participation in the form of letterpress printed material. In 2003 I printed up 280 hair questionnaires to be answered at two solo exhibitions. The solicited answers were fascinating and it took six years before I decided on the binding. Hair Talk volumes I, II, and III explore our society's relationship to their own hair. "Question 1: Describe your hair (color, texture, body, length…). Question 2: What don't you like about your hair? Question 3: What do you like about your hair? Question 4: Would you trade your hair in for different hair? If so, what would it be?"

Ultimately, I try to understand the complexities, contradictions and injustices of today's world through my creative process. My intent is to spark curiosity in my audience and use that flame to ignite further self-reflection and action.

By detaching the hinges and joints the pop-up model can be deconstructed, enabling it to be rebuilt and modified in any way. So although the piece was made in 2009 it is on-going, a never-ending story which can be constantly changed and renewed.

I have tried to create a filigree, lace-like effect so that the garden and floating green house (which is on three levels) is cut away to reveal layers of plant and architectural forms. Although more than six sheets of watercolour paper are used here (200lb Saunders Waterford), the whole structure weighs less than two kilograms.

Monastic and secular gardens portrayed in medieval Books of Hours are my inspiration, which is also why I use brilliant dyes to color the paper; pen work overlays combined with delicate brushwork complete the linear elements. I started by making a boat-like base and then the rest of the work grew literally from there in a profusion of stems, leaves and flowers.

In this book In Between Presence and Absence, 2, I have cut out pages in the shape of a bowl to create absence and presence. The repetitive working process of cutting each page presented in the accumulated pages represents the timeless space in between the absence and presence as well as visualized-invisible concept of the relation of the presence and absence. I say, in this sculptural book, that the presence only exists when the absence is recognized.

After the casting dries, images are transferred from photocopy and drawing and text are added. But there is no specific order in which this happens. The whole work grows organically, following the flow of thoughts. In fact I would even go to the extent of saying that the content of the work is flow of thoughts or observing the workings of the mind itself. How my mind connects seemingly unrelated elements, in an astonishing way, throwing up surprises, insights which I didn't pre-plan comes through comes through. I can say I facilitate this "flow" to happen. Like Buddhist meditation, I watch and witness the flow happening, while being part of the process. I don't force anything. When the book is completed the connections between visual and textual elements within each book and among the group would have documented this "stream of consciousness".

Because of this seamless flow between text and visual, concrete images to abstract ideas, the viewer is also constantly scanning the book. He cannot dwell or get fixated on any one section. Even before he realises the "movement" happens. Mimicking the original flow but in a different order. Because of these connections, larger or smaller groups of books can be created, without disturbing the unique individuality of each book.

The subject of the books apart from the hidden mechanics of thought, is about life around me ("me" included as one of the characters); day to day travails, desire, greed, sorrow, happiness and an endless striving to survive, succeed and make sense of this world, all form the content. Perhaps these books are my little tools in my engagement with things around me.

"Never hide"
It urges people not to be shy and stand on a pedestal proudly. It also says, find your own pedestal or create one; nobody else will provide you one. The characters standing on the pedestal are talking about the difficulties of standing all the time and problems of facing the elements.

"Explode"
This text addresses the building up of sexual desire and its explosion like a volcano. It also refers to anger and collecting hurts and being in a state of constant agitation, like a dump of keg powder, ready to explode.

"Burn"
Waiting endlessly to fulfil the urges. Burning bed as a metaphor for desire. Requesting the skies to open up and quench the thirst.

"Conditions apply"
It talks about the Jain monk Gomateshwara, who discarded his clothes as an ultimate symbol of renunciation. For him open space became his clothes. The text in the bottom mentions that there are no free lunches, if you think something is free and hog you will get the bill much later, in some other form. Even happiness comes with conditions attached.

"Use me"
This talks about mutual dependence. And we all exploit each other in one form or the other.

"New improved"
There is mention on the left side about seeing oneself in the mirror in the morning and not able to identify the person seen in the reflection. The sudden revelation gives a glimpse of the "other" inside you. On the right hand side the text speaks about outer showing off and the true person inside, and the differences between the two.

During a family crisis, around 2008, I kept hearing the phrase "It is what it is," and realized that it had entered the mainstream. I became somewhat annoyed with the dismissive tone of the saying. I began to ask the question "Is it what it is? Really? Does this explain everything?" I then set out to express my reaction in two phrases which represent the yin and yang of our emotional responses to events and those around us. I wanted to look beneath the surface of what we think of when we say "it is what it is" and to consider action versus inaction.

Transferring this concept to a book form created a challenge. I envisioned both phrases cleanly displayed on the cover and the narrative statements (i.e., Whatever/I'd like to discuss) on the text pages side by side, highlighting the opposing question I hear when people say "It is what it is." Using a French Doors structure involving two sewn text blocks bound side by side with a shared back cover was the best style to showcase the dichotomy. The shared back cover brings the two text blocks together, while expressing two opposing views. Turning pages on "both books" in unison gives you time to think about what the true meaning is.

As with all my books, I design, create and use a paste paper for the cover and endpapers. For this book's text pages I printed the text onto a paste paper design which I used as the background pattern. One side of the book is represented by a vague lightly colored dot pattern while the other side's pattern pops out at you signifying being able to see things clearly now. In addition, on each page I used a window to showcase other paste paper designs to accompany the phrases. These designs represent different views of the papers and thus different meanings of each phrase. For example, the phrase "Let it be" represents an evenly laid out pattern whereas "I can’t let it go" gives a close-up view exemplifying letting go of what looks like balloons. To further create the differences between the two phrases I created an inside black border at the fore edge of each text block and the cover where the two close as one.

I am always in search of what lies beneath the surface. My artist's books add another layer of expression to events of the day that tear at my heart.

Euthanasia in kit form (free for students)

Instructions for use: Pinch the tube before removing the stopper. Introduce the nozzle in the nostril, relax the pressure on the tube, breathe while pressing on the other nostril.

I make "books" since 1982, but 3 years ago, I began books about American cemeteries in Belgium, and soon other countries (Luxembourg, Holland...). Every year, I make a "book" for April 1st, taking as subject an "aberration" of moment.

Dorothy's Days is about various and mysterious journeys of a doll of my childhood. I liked to play with paper dolls when I was a child. I imagined that I could go a different place by changing a clothing of a doll when I was a little. Each paper clothing inside my book takes a travel to a space and tell unexpected stories to me.

Debra Magpie Earling has written a raw-edged account of a 17 year old pregnant slave (and wife) of Touissant Charbonneau in the years of 1804-5 on the upper-Missouri River. She is haunted by prophetic dreams. I have chosen to accompany her work with photo-interventions to illustrate the dark visions that the young woman is having as she travels westward towards her homeland with the expedition.

The earliest photographic records of the civilizations of the Missouri and Columbia River basins from which I have drawn my images were often produced in a spirit of boosterish pride in scientific and industrial advancement and environmental and cultural devastation. Commercial photographers arrived just in time to capture the reduced circumstances, starvation, and squalor on the newly formed reservations of the Upper Missouri and the Northern Rockies. Only a few photographs document the extermination of the bison and the hunter's struggles against starvation. Instead, as if to marginalize the dying cultures, countless images survive that depict the arrival of the mining speculator, soldier, cowboy, farmer, lumberjack, dry-goods merchant, and all that followed to give us a thorough and close-up look at the noble savage-free territory of post-bison civilization.

As the "Frontier" disappeared, the "Real West" burst upon the landscape like poisonous mushrooms after a forest fire.

The book is a series of collaborations among artists. Don Farnsworth at Magnolia Editions consulted and solved problems of paper technology and photo-print production: Debra and Peter collaborated on the design and the texts in a prolonged dialogue over the four years the project was underway. Jonathan Gerken at Peter Koch, Printers solved a number of the technical and aesthetic puzzles that arose during production. The text is printed on Twinrocker Da Vinci hand-made paper at Peter Koch Printers and bound at the press by Jonathan Gerken and Andy Rottner. The "smoked buffalo rawhide" cover paper was designed and handmade by Amanda Degener especially for this edition at Cave Papers in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Debra Magpie Earling is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation. She has been published in journals and anthologies and her novel Perma Red received the American Book Award, the Mountains and Plains Bookseller Association Award, and a Spur Award. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

I use the mythological figure of Daedalus, or more specifically the ideal of Daedalus, as the central character throughout the cyclical storyline. Void of the traditional mysticism and fantasy, one half of the book examines the ancient Greek engineer's recurring habit of creating an idea or object that is proactively revolutionary and then watching as it causes personal/cultural/emotional tragedy. As time moves along the deeds worsen thus creating larger and more catastrophic ramifications. In the opposing half of the book (formatted as a dos-a-dos), a Daedalus-type individual reappears in the twenty-first century and is immersed in a world where the desire to make things for the right reason is the same as making them for the wrong one. The quick ascension of the engineer within this society leads directly to new potentials and age-old moralities that re-expose us to his (our) inevitable and repeatable downfall.

The physicality of the book is my playground. Real books are to be touched intimately, sculpture is not to be touched. Sculpted books thus set up a tension between those extremes. Slight exaggerations can transform the familiar codex form by turns into an iconoclastic mask, as in 276 Steps to Greater Personal Spontaneity or a vessel for fleeting emotion, as with Love Knot in So Many Words.

The physicality of the book is my playground. Real books are to be touched intimately, sculpture is not to be touched. Sculpted books thus set up a tension between those extremes. Slight exaggerations can transform the familiar codex form by turns into an iconoclastic mask, as in 276 Steps to Greater Personal Spontaneity or a vessel for fleeting emotion, as with Love Knot in So Many Words.

This limited edition book is richly illustrated with 14 lush full-page, multi-color reduction woodcuts, with hand-set letterpress text printed into the images. The three stories come from the Mi'kmaq, the indigenous First Nations People who traditionally inhabit what is now Nova Scotia, parts of New Brunswick, Quebec and northern Maine. In their language (from the Algonquin family of languages) they called themselves Lnu'k, the People. The title of this book, A'tugwaqan (pronounced "aa-du-gwa-hgen") means a story or tale.

Excerpted from two books by Ruth Holmes Whitehead, ethnologist and former curator at the Nova Scotia Museum, Halifax, these stories give a small glimpse into the diverse and complex oral traditions of the Mi'kmaq. They describe a continually transforming mythological world full of shape-shifting animals and humans, star persons, and the great cultural hero Kluskap.

The horizontal format measures approx. 9x11" closed and the book is bound with printed paper over boards, and a red cloth spine. On the front is a woodcut depicting Mi'kmaw porcupine quillwork on birch bark, with a traditional double curve design. In addition to the 14 main images, there are numerous other images on the printed end sheets, the half title, title, introduction and colophon pages. Traditional Mi'kmaw pictographs and petroglyph motifs are used in conjunction with the original woodcut images conceived by the artist/printer Jim Lee. Sarah Creighton (Easthampton, MA) bound the edition.

Faux-Pas is a photographic documentation prompted by my curiosity while living in the USA. This study investigates the use of the American flag as an act of patriotism. As a French Canadian living on extended "sejour" in Ohio and in Utah, the pattern and colours of the American flag became visually intoxicating.

I carried out research on the United States Code relating to the use of the flag. I came to realize that our friends south of the border have put considerable thought into the flag's reverent treatment. The laws relating to the flag outline rules, customs and etiquette pertaining to the respectful use of the Stars and Stripes. The obvious expressions of patriotism featured in this book struck me as clear violations of the United States Code pertaining to the flag. My observations of the symbol that touches the core identity of Americans are portrayed in my project.

Edition of 9 copies. Flag book structure with accordion folded spine. Photoshop, fonts type Helvetica Neue and Zapfino in colour Pantone 193. Cover and spine printed on Inkpress Matte, 180gsm; images printed on Entrada Rag Bright, 300gsm. Printed digitally on an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 printer.

Glass House explores the 1984 death of a young Irish woman with whom I share the same name. She was 15, pregnant and unmarried, when she died from hemorrhage and exposure with her stillborn son in a grotto to the Virgin Mary in Granard, Ireland. It is unclear whether her family or community knew of her pregnancy or offered any help. The family has never spoken publicly of her death, or of her sister's three months later from an overdose of prescription drugs. The father of her child has never come forward or been identified. Three months before her death the Irish voted to support a referendum effectively making the existing ban on abortion part of the country’s constitution.

Glass House explores issues of vulnerability and protection, privacy and exposure, sensuality and the failures of Catholicism in her life. The glass house functions as a metaphor and is reflected as well in the subject of these photographs, glass-domed grave decorations traditionally seen in Catholic graveyards in Ireland. Over time they become fogged with condensation, broken or half-filled with water, obscuring the religious figures within and the faith they are intended to embody. The text is a book-length poem written by the artist.

Glass House is digitally printed on rag paper with archival pigmented inks. The binding is a drumleaf construction with hard covers and a break-away spine.

Once I decided to delve into the spatial realms of architecture, a trip to Home Depot for supplies seemed in order. A heat register cover became the front of my book; sheets of radiator screen the pages. On each page were hand-hammered stanzas of aluminum, appropriately scuffed, and accompanying metal illustrations. Waxed linen binding thread tied it all together. At last, a book. But also something more than a book -- a structural commentary on waiting and constraint.

So, how did a book so certain of its origins in papermaking evolve into a sculptural work combining poetry and metal? The process began one afternoon in a favorite Minneapolis junk shop. I was on the hunt for art supplies, and thought I might stumble upon some old wallpaper samples, sheet music, or postcards. What I discovered instead was a vintage dress form tucked away behind a 1950s era kitchen table. I knew without question that the dressmaker's form would be a part of my work. I imagined it as a vessel for words. Not words printed onto paper, but words hammered onto small aluminum pages. I envisioned a line of words extending ladder-like down the center of the form. Was this a poem or a metal spine? I liked the ambiguity of the question. During the making of Dress Call, I tried out a variety of prototypes, eventually deciding upon hand hammered aluminum tiles, rectangular in shape, which I mounted to radiator screen (for stability) and then scuffed up with my Dremel. I threaded these word tiles together with waxed linen binding thread and suspended them inside the work.

What continues to surprise me about the bookmaking process is the manner in which content springs quite naturally from form. After working on Dress Call for several weeks I knew that this poem would deal with the history of the corset and the notion of constraint in women's fashion. It seemed somehow intuitive that a work made out of metal and thread and housed within the parameters of the female shape would deal with such issues. And, what better way to enhance the experience of poetry than to move it off the papery environs of the page and bring it into 3D.

The cover and pages of Diorama are formed using a unique technique I developed whereby I carve the pages following the growth rings of the tree from which the wood came. Each page is two growth rings thick around the perimeter, and support a five-layer carved interpretation of Biddle's image within that framed perimeter. Two more of Biddle's drawings inspire the front and back covers, and are carved in a similar manner. Close examination of Image #2 will help visualize the process. The pages are carved from maple, and the cover is white oak.

As far as I have been able to determine, my technique is completely unique, and I am the only artist that carves sculpture, in any form, by following the annual growth rings.

Carving wood books along the growth rings of trees is full of meaning. Books, of course, are made of paper, which is in turn made from wood, which comes from trees. My book sculpture also comes from a tree. The bent forms of the cover, spine and pages, since they are exactly the way the tree naturally grew during those years, form a sort of diary of the very tree used for the sculpture. They are pages of my book, but also pages from the story of the tree itself. All those irregular surfaces, while naturally created, leave at the same time an impression of a book well loved and well used, which is, of course, true also of the trees from which the sculpture came. These overlapping meanings add intimacy and value to the object, conjuring up feelings reminiscent of real books long cherished.

Extended image descriptions:

Image 1: Cover and slipcase of the Book of Hours
The cover is bound with black cloth and embossed with black glossy foil. The slipcase is covered with light gray Bugra-Bütten letterpress printed with a cross in dark gray.

Image 2: Calendar spread (May)
Every Book of Hours starts with a calendar; so too the model I used for my remake. May is the month of love, the picture borders show a woman and a man, using contemporary material.

Image 3: Illuminated spread of the Office of the Virgin Mary
Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth (pregnant with John) and gets blessed by her. Green, the color of hope, plays a role in the image.

Image 4: Text spread of the Seven Penitential Psalms
Altough the typography is a modern one, using the typface Akzidenz Grotesk, the use of colors and decorated capital letters follows strict the old manuscript model. But the used colors are only Magenta or Cyan, and for the main text a dark gray (no black), and of course gold leaf.

Image 5: Illuminated spread of the Prayers to Saint Erasmus
Here as in all illuminated pages (except the calendar pages) the image of the original manuscript lays in the background. Since the old image is manipulated and covered with new material, it’s scarcely recognizable.

During Martens' second work trip to Kobe in 1997, he worked on "The Paper Monument of The Wall" -- a frottage/rubbing of a concrete wall of a former daily market built in 1927. Size of the wall: 7290 x 13490 mm. This wall survived the bombing of the Americans in 1945 and again it survived the earthquake of 1995. The Japanese artist Taiji Mihara wanted to save this wall as a monument; he called the wall "the non-human witness of the Quake...". Because the City Council of Kobe had decided to demolish this wall for housing, Martens proposed to make a rubbing of this wall before it was knocked down. He calls it The Paper Monument of The Wall of Nagata-ku, Kobe Japan.

Earlier I had made a photobook of the 1997 rubbing project in a small edition. This year I decided to make an artist's book with the 76 sheets of paper forming together the Paper Wall. In the same time I have been searching for an museum in the Kobe area which is willing to receive the work in their collection. The Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art is interested. Due to the earthquake of March 11th, the contact is stopped for a moment. But we will continue later. Canon Europe nv in Amstelveen was willing to sponsor the laserprint and ink-jet costs.

To me the suitcase has become a symbol or metaphor for my life. I like to think that life is a sort of travel. And so I see the suitcase is not only a container for mundane stuff like toothbrushes and clean socks, it also represents the mental luggage you carry along. In that perspective an ordinary suitcase represents something very complex in a simple, flexible and independent manner. The message is: it's easy to move on. Just pack your bag, close the lid, grab the handle and hit the road!

Over the last years I have made more artists' books based on suitcases, but always with various ways of constructing the way the pages are organized, and of course what's the content of the suitcase. One major common denominator though is the incorporation of recycled material.

I took four excerpts from the Philosophical Investigations, fragmented them onto forty-two separate printing plates, and printed them in process color in varied combinations, both chance and deliberate. The standard methodology of printing is to pair each plate with a new stack of paper, and when the printing is finished, the stacks are collated to create multiple copies of the same work. I intervened in that process and would take part of a stack of paper, print it, shuffle the prints back into the stack, and print another section of the stack with a different plate. The final structure of the book consists of four sections of ten pages each, each focusing on one quote. Each section begins with a fragment with the word language and gradually builds to complete the entire quote.

I chose to use process color (CMYK) as spot color to emphasize the instability of conventional color printing and so that the overprinting would create a wide range of color. Furthermore, the use of color creates multiple readings for every combination of fragments because the thread of the text can be followed either chromatically or spatially. I deliberately limited the number of fragments on many of the pages in order that the poetic dimension of the philosophical fragment would surface and not be lost in a jumble of overprinting. The binding is an adaptation of the wire edge binding to cover weight paper. Each sheet is finely abraded using a laser cutter to create a thin flap at the spine edge. The flap is then folded, capturing a wire. The pages are then sewn together creating a text block that opens completely flat at every spread and which is moderately unstable, mirroring the text and the printing process. In lieu of boards the book is housed in a cloth covered clamshell box, mounted onto which is part of a plate used in the book and showing one of the text fragments.

The two quotes not shown in the images are as follows:

"And don't clutch at the idea of our always being able to bring red before our mind's eye even when there is nothing red any more. For suppose you cannot remember the colour anymore? When we forget which colour this is the name of, it loses its meaning for us."

"Compare knowing and saying: how many feet high Mont Blanc is; how the word "game" is used; how a clarinet sounds."

I work primarily in two mediums: handmade artist books and prints. Increasingly much of my work is digital, based on digital images (digital photos, scans, or other digital images) that I manipulate and combine with other design elements in Photoshop. Coral Ghosts is entirely digital. However some of the elements were created first in a more traditional manner. The images of corals on the case of the book were made by scratching into plexi, filling the lines with ink to make them visible, and then taking digital photos of them. Finally I worked on these digital photos in Photoshop. The book itself was designed in Photoshop, based on scans of pieces of coral and on charts and graphs taken from scientific websites about global warming. These charts were changed only in appearance to make them more graphic, the content was not changed. The book and the case are printed with pigment ink on an Epson inkjet printer in a limited edition of 12, and hand assembled and hand sewn.

Extended image descriptions:

Image 1: Front of the case that contains the book. It is made in three sections, folded and tied with a ribbon. The images on the case are corals scratched into plexi, the lines filled with ink to make them visible, the plexi is scanned, and the resulting images are colored in Photoshop. The images are printed directly on to archival illustration board on an Epson inkjet printer.

Image 2: Inside of the case. The middle section has a divided page attached to it makes a compartment for the book. The image on the page is made from scans of pieces of coral.

Image 3: Cover of the book itself. The book is a hand-sewn pamphlet, and the back pages fold around in a partial scroll over the fronts of the right hand pages.

Image 4: Pages 1-2. The text on the top of the left hand page is repeated on each left hand page (fading). The text on the top of the right hand page changes on each page. ("...in the ocean crowds", "...they bleached, then died", "...their bones dissolved", "...only ghosts remain", "...in these empty seas") The images are scans of corals. The charts and graphs are taken from scientific websites about global warming and are unchanged except to put them into more graphic form.

Kathryn had a slightly different perspective on this collaboration She writes:
This collaboration with Mary Modeen proved to be especially serendipitous for me, both personally and professionally. On the one hand, it came at a time when I had recovered from writer's block, largely a result of becoming, paradoxically, too certain of the poet I was. Recovery came from acceptance: I had begun to embrace the personal shifts in myself that time presents to us all. At the same time, something abides: who we were and who we thought we were. This lends us our richness and complexity. We are both flux and residue. On the other hand, here's the charge of all art: to take us from our certainties to our uncertainties. Art is not about the answers: it is about the questions. Art is multivalent and fugitive; it denies us safety and emphatic grounding. It presents us instead with competing tensions and readings. In undertaking this collaboration, I thought, principally, of Robert Frost. Frost employed deceptively simple language to explore complex ideas that were as elegant as they were often disturbing. The "saying" in a Frost poem is all in the unsaid or offstage. The resulting collaboration with Mary seemed perhaps an ideal collision of what visual art and poetry do best, in their particular ways: showing and hiding, lending intimacy and taking retreat, of gifting and denial.

This book, white as snow, is a response to the tension of navigating a life between smooth and striated spaces, in pursuit of the indelibly illusive truth. The book exists both as a variable edition of 6 and in a virtual form accessible via the internet. The following three triggers instigated the work:

"But Iluvatar gave power to the gods,
and they bent back the edges of Middle-earth,
and they made it into a globe,
so that however far a man should sail he could never again reach the true west,
but came back weary at last to the place of his beginning."
- JRR Tolkien, from the Sillmarillion

Artwork: Victory over Death (1970) by Colin McMahon, New Zealand

Artwork: Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys) (1990), by Gordon Bennett, Australian

white as snow is the outcome of a haptic art practice, an outcome arrived at by responding to alluded resolutions during the making process. Not only was the making a haptic space, the book is a haptic space. A space that the reader needs to find their way through rather than follow a well-trodden path. Two worlds permeate the book, the smooth space of a "nomadic" life and the striated space of "university education".

The design of the book, while following the basic structure of a codex, was informed by its making. Each folio in the book is a hand made sheet of paper made from recycled red clothing, in the form of a letter of the alphabet. All the pages of each book represent a single impression of a large linocut; they were all laid out on the inked linocut and printed in a single impression of a press. The folios were then collated into varied segments, folded and bound. The corresponding e-book can be found at:
http://www.silverwattlepress.com/swp_frameset.html

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: Three Allegories
These three books explore the image and symbolism of the wolf in sheep's clothing, each book exploring a different take on this idea: the traditional and nostalgic narrative, a personal narrative, and an interactive play on how we see animals as representatives of our own emotions and character.

This book is the result of a six-week artistic residency held at Khoj International Artists' Association in Delhi around the concept of books. The texts are part of that experience -- the encounter with India -- and of earlier trips that, despite having been made in different moments, contexts and emotional states, had the same starting point: the vertigo (fear, pain, motivation) of going away to encounter the unknown and oneself.

Beyond the final product, the process behind the creation of this book has been another journey. To lose the fear of creating, to dare to play and experiment with paper, to face idiomatic and resource limitations, and the ones imposed by the blank page, was a whole new challenge. As was being able to express that mixture of ideas and emotions through black cover paper.

It was also an opportunity to materialize my passion for the book as an object and explore it in depth, realizing its value not only because of its content but as a container; uniting form and matter.

Random Reflections was part of a collective exhibition where the works of all the artists in residency were shown: four Indians, one Mexican and I, a Peruvian. Each one of us took hold of the workshops' space to express our own interpretation of the book.

My exhibit included other elements that helped close the concept behind this book. In one corner, an open cage; inside, the word FEAR spelled on individual round mirrors. Outside the cage and directly behind F-E-A-R, the word F-R-E-E. The book, spread over a reflective aluminum surface on top of a 3m x 1.4m silver table. On the opposite wall, a square mirror with a tiny invitation to look, written at its center: "Do you like what you see?" To its right, a metal structure with hundreds of round magnetic mirrors, each with a letter, available so that every visitor/observer could write their own reflections or feel reflected on those of others. Randomly. Or not.

Extended image descriptions:

Image 1: The book consists of 25 pages on each side, organized in spreads of two. The left pages hold a rectangle of ivory paper with the text. The right pages show images that have been hand carved, cut or pasted unto the black paper. Some of them include materials such as mirror, masking tape and needles.

Image 2: The first page on the right is made of 147 round mirrors (1cm diameter). Some of the mirrors have Letraset letters on them. To the left, the text reads: "The whole universe has come together in this precise instant so that I can write these lines. It's the big bang of words." The following page is completely white. The text to the left reads: "Blank pages hold all the hope in the world." Bottom. The hardcover book (right) comes in a box (left). Both pieces are covered in black cloth with the title, Random Reflections, embossed in silver hot stamping.

In recent years, I have introduced two new series of work that reference the pages of an open book -- Typo and Palindrome. In the Typo series, I have etched lines into two acrylic blocks to configure the structure of an open book. Each pair eludes to text on the printed page. The fold in the open book matches the fold in language created by the palindrome. Viewing the book sideways gives the impression that the reflected text goes on to infinity.

My work revolves around the authority of printed language. I borrow that tone of authority to explore the comforts and limitations of community: what kinds of things bind people together, and why it is difficult to hold that in place. I became interested in self-help literature through an immersion in a culture of makeover TV, and am attracted to its slick surface. I am fascinated by the ways language can perversely be used to prevent communication, by resisting the impulse to question either logic or method. I built the text by moving back and forth between collecting bits of found language and editing/rewriting. The first part of the book contains interior monologues from various people groping for some kind of assistance. As you move through the book, various kinds of promises and projections are woven together to provide a symphony of new beginnings.

Derrelict is an unreadable object book. This book is a metaphor. It is like an adrift boat: the content is a sea of paper with aeronautical tables. The welded structure cover represents the upper works (part of the boat out of water) and the light is the lighthouse wich will take us to solid ground. The light is a very important part of this work.

Everyone can be a derelict in a moment of their life and sometimes we need a lighthouse to take us to solid ground.

Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1759-1849) is perhaps best known for his seminal works, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. The two series of woodblock prints, published from 1829 to c. 1847, depict the sacred peak within the context of landscapes and scenes of daily life. At the heart of the series is Hokusai's own obsession with immortality, and his fascination with Fuji's eternal presence.

Therein lies the rub: Fuji is anything but eternal. Beyond the usual, abstract geologic transience of eroding rock and drifting continents, Fuji is an active stratovolcano. Its days -- and those of the lives and lands at its base -- are numbered. Here in Washington state, just forty miles southeast of my home, lies Fuji's taller, more volatile, American twin. Variously named Tacobet, Tahoma and Ti'Swaq', among others, by the region's indigenous peoples, or simply "The Mountain" by contemporary locals -- its most arbitrary moniker, coined in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver, is the one that stuck: Mount Rainier.

It's easy to forget Rainier's impermanence. It has presided over thousands of years of indigenous culture, followed by the encroachment and permanent occupation of white settlers. It oversaw the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the fever of the Klondike Gold Rush, the splendor of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. It stood in judgment while the American descendants of Hokusai's countrymen were imprisoned beside the wooden-frame rollercoaster of the Western Washington Fairgrounds, at the internment center nicknamed Camp Harmony. And it has watched the rise and decline and rise again of Tacoma, the City of Destiny lovingly misnamed in its honor.

Yet all the while, Rainier has changed as much as the tableau at its feet. Its volcanic restlessness shifts its form, as our capricious Northwestern weather masks its appearance. It hides, or dominates, depending on the time of day or year. Even we have proved a catalyst, as our warming climate chases its alpine glaciers into retreat at the speed of industry. And one day -- whether tomorrow or in a million years, in an explosion of ash or by the erosion of time -- Mount Rainier will disappear completely. I can't begin to predict the future, but I can attempt to capture the present moment. One hundred present moments, to be exact. If nothing else, Local Conditions is a reminder of the lesson of this place: that here in the Ring of Fire, we never see the same Mountain twice.

Local Conditions is a fully interactive artist book, capturing the changing faces of Mt. Rainier. Explore the 100 Views (or build one of your own) to discover a mountain both immortal and impermanent. The book contains 120 image flats and a viewing box; by combining and layering the flats inside the viewing box, the reader can create literally millions of scenes.

Written, illustrated, designed, printed and bound by Chandler O'Leary, through freak snowstorms, record heat, and a thousand gentle rains in Tacoma, Washington. Each of the book's 120 image flats is illustrated and compiled from sketches, photographs and data collected in person, on location throughout the Pacific Northwest, from September 2008 to October 2010. In homage to the color palette of Hokusai's Fuji, all text and images are letterpress printed in indigo ink. Images and topographic map patterns are hand-drawn and watercolored; image flats are hand-cut.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: An interactive artist book, capturing the changing faces of Mt. Rainier. Illustrated and compiled from data collected in person, on location, from 2008 to 2010. Letterpress printed, hand-watercolored, housed in a set of drawers with nested stab-bound book and Japanese-style outer wrapper. When the book is fully closed, it resembles a cube; the faces of the closed book contain illustrated labels corresponding to the North, South, East and West faces of Mt. Rainier, each depicting the mountain at sunset. The frontispiece containing the title of the book is at the top of the closed wrapper, and depicts a topographic map of the summit of Mt. Rainier. All illustrations and maps are hand-drawn and printed from photopolymer plates.

Image 2: Detail, fully assembed book with accompanying Japanese-style outer wrapper unfolded. The book contains 120 image flats and a viewing box; by combining and layering the flats inside the viewing box, the reader can create literally millions of scenes. Illustrated flats are letterpress printed, hand-watercolored and hand-cut with scalpel. Image flats and viewing box are housed in the three drawers when book is closed; colophon and viewing instructions are printed on the inside faces of the wrapper.

Image 3: Detail of viewing box and image flats. Viewing box contains 8 slots for layering image flats to create scenes. The book details 100 views documented by the artist, but it is possible for the viewer to create up to 1.4 x 10-to-the 15th (1.4 quintillion) unique image combinations. Each image flat is numbered and printed with a individual color code for use in creating the 100 defined views

Image 4: Detail of drawer, image flats, outer wrapper and nested stab-bound Locator Key. Real-time data for the color-coded 100 views are documented within the Locator Key, including date, time, latitude and longitude coordinates, location name, weather data and notable historical information. Color code instructions (shown) are printed inside the outer wrapper; Key also contains numerical “recipes” for the flats required for each view, should the viewer choose to start with the Key rather than the flats to create scenes.

Image 5: Detail of frontispiece (on wrapper), set of drawers, detached viewing box and a selection of image flats.

But what do we lose? Lossy compression makes music transmission easier while it removes the nuances of sound and range of dynamics. Then there is the community at a concert hall for a performance; the magic when orchestra, composer and audience come together. Sometimes during this focused time, transcendence happens -- and sometimes chaos -- all part of who we are. When the 9th was first performed, the only way to hear it was at a performance; perhaps once in a lifetime.

Our alphabet, music notation, binary code -- each signals so much and yet lacks some dimension; the sound of the music, the words of the code. As I wrote the German choral text to the 9th, I could hear the chorus stress, "Vor Gott!" in that moment in music when time stops. I wondered what the binary code translation would look like and so began writing it out, illuminating data that usually only exists in a nanosecond. It's beautiful, with hypnotic patterns of ones and zeros -- illuminated like the light of this computer screen.

The tension I feel with this digital/virtual question became evident as I worked on the book. How many brushstrokes to get the right mark, how many times to write the text. Then how easy and meditative to write the binary code. We live in a fascinating time and I wish I could return in 100 years with hopes that people are still playing music, writing words, turning pages and thinking of metaphors.

Media includes: Nepalese Lokta paper, Lettra paper, glassine paper, copper sheeting, rubber-stamped pictures, stitching. Pictures are rubber-stamped by hand on Lettra paper, using stamp pads with archival ink. Rubber stamps are from all over the world, many of them sold by Leavenworth Jackson. Small pieces of copper sheeting sewn to the paper. Panels are cut by hand using razor blades. Machine-stitching used as design element and to add stability to the structure.

This artist book addresses the task of displaying a book within any given space and may be extended to occupy various different dimensions. It may be held in one's hands and read like a codex, or left freestanding to enable a more distant collective reading. The cover may be opened in two directions allowing different formats and thus allows the book to be read in any direction. It contains visual elements scattered with fragmented textual insertions and many hyperlinks, questioning the definition of a page. There are pages within pages... Process is as important as the "finished" product in my work, and various stages and elements of production are seen within the final book.

In the mid-19th century Heinrich Hoffman wrote and illustrated The Struwwelpeter, a series of morality tales for children. The result in each tale can now be considered disastrous and shockingly inappropriate for children. Inspired by their fantastical nature, I began creating three-dimensional interpretations of the stories in the form of flag, tunnel, carousel, and pop-up books.

The new Pope's self-effacing demeanor had concealed his intelligence and vivacity. He planned to return the papacy to its spiritual origins, reduce the wealth of the church, give money to the poor, and share his positive views on contraception. His biggest challenge: identify and excommunicate bishops and cardinals who had secretly become Freemasons -- an illegal act in the church -- and purge members of the Mafia from the Vatican Bank.

Conservative hostilities on all sides mushroomed. Their quiet figurehead, their "smiling Pope," had betrayed them. Conservative newspapers censored the Pope's remarks.

Alone, John Paul I persisted with his investigation into the Vatican Bank scandal. Within weeks, he penetrated the smoke of corruption.

On September 28, thirty-three days after his election, Pope John Paul I was found dead -- the files of those under investigation, missing from his private rooms.

The Cross box is made from board and book cloth and has 2 doors that hold images and text. A central double-door holds a book, and the door below it holds a prayer missal that has been altered. Two drawers hold small books and glass vials on each side, as do two slots on each side. Images and text inside compartments and books are digital. Hardware is from a silver rosary.

Viva Voce celebrates women's spirit and their landays -- anonymous, unwritten poems, sung by Pashtun women. These poems give women a voice that reflect their world, in a culture where their lives are ruled by strict Sharia law, where they are kept segregated and hidden, and where violence is a constant occurrence in their lives. I wanted to sing of their strength and perseverance, to recognize their creative spirit and allow their songs to reach out and take form.

The book is made up of four libretti: Love, War, Exile and Violence (with titles also translated into Persian.) Landays from each of these themes were interwoven with my interpretive visual responses, incorporating the tactility of myriad papers and the physicality of the printed pages. They are all contained in a confined enclosure within which are four separate folders, making each libretto removable so that they can be freed to be read, seen, or experienced independently. The title of the book, Viva Voce, translates "from the living voice" to echo the origin of these oral songs/poems.

In 1996 the Taliban, after taking over Kabul and other Afghan cities, imposed Sharia, an extremely restrictive interpretation of Islamic law. The most severe rules were reserved for women, who were instructed to wear a burqua, a garment that covers the body from head to toe, restricts vision, is claustrophobic, and dehumanizing. They could no longer go outside their home without a male escort, attend school or work, and many other restrictions, under penalty of violence toward them and their families. Additionally, the sixteen decrees prohibited things such as playing music and dancing, kite flying, reproductions of pictures, and washing clothes by river embankments -- a rare time where women were free to be with other women and step outside their confined space. This was one of the times where they would voice their songs.

"The violence which scars the lives of a huge proportion of Afghan women and girls is rooted in Afghan culture, customs, attitudes, and practices. Afghan women have limited freedom to escape the norms and traditions that dictate a subservient status for females… The issue of 'honour' is a sociocultural norm that is central to the issue of rape and efforts to counter its prevalence. Shame is attached to rape victims rather than to the perpetrator. Victims often find themselves being prosecuted for the offence of zina (adultery) and are denied access to justice. The problem is compounded when communities subject female victims to lifelong stigma and shame. Moreover, society may call for, or condone, sexual violence through harmful traditional practices such as baad (the practice of handing over girls to settle disputes), or by insisting that a victim marry the rapist." (UNAMA - Human Rights, United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan; from "Silence is Violence: End of Abuse of Women in Afghanistan" July 2009)

Symbols and diagrams are sometime used to explain, through the golden proportions and sacred geometry, the relationships that exist within Human Nature and the Universe. The mythical representation of the Symbols represent the many complex aspects of reality.

"The Symbol is the psychological mechanism that goes beyond limitations, as a tool to transform Energy."
- C. G. Jung, On Psychic Energy

When I start a work of art, there is an empty space, a void, and I search how to balance form with emptiness, knowing when one has "said" enough. The shapes that take form are so integrally related to its empty space giving the feeling of marvelous Void. Because Void is a dynamic entity. My "non-books" and pages without words or images are focused only on the light and shadows created in the empty spaces of their construction. My works are composed with natural light, which cause the pieces to vibrate as the light changes through the course of the day. As well as an awareness of the unknown phantoms of exploration, my work demands the music of silence. Silence, light and spontaneity are the central elements of my work.

Symbols and diagrams are sometime used to explain, through the golden proportions and sacred geometry, the relationships that exist within Human Nature and the Universe. The mythical representation of the Symbols represent the many complex aspects of reality.

"The Symbol is the psychological mechanism that goes beyond limitations, as a tool to transform Energy."
- C. G. Jung, On Psychic Energy

When I start a work of art, there is an empty space, a void, and I search how to balance form with emptiness, knowing when one has "said" enough. The shapes that take form are so integrally related to its empty space giving the feeling of marvelous Void. Because Void is a dynamic entity. My "non-books" and pages without words or images are focused only on the light and shadows created in the empty spaces of their construction. My works are composed with natural light, which cause the pieces to vibrate as the light changes through the course of the day. As well as an awareness of the unknown phantoms of exploration, my work demands the music of silence. Silence, light and spontaneity are the central elements of my work.

A BookEnviron is an artist's book that by concept and scale creates an immersion experience for the viewer who enters and explores the space created and shaped by the pages. Eureka Magnolia BookEnviron is part of an ongoing series of collaborative installations of large viewer interactive environments exploring the theme of spaces set aside for contemplation. Our BookEnvirons are intended to call attention to the need in our daily lives for a place of quiet reflection. We are identical twin sisters who create artwork both independently and collaboratively. The artworks for which we coined the term "BookEnviron" grew out of a brainstorming session raising the question, "Wouldn’t it be wonderful to create artists' books that are large enough to walk into?" The term "BookEnviron" calls attention to their status as large artists' books with a relationship to the environment. As though released from their bindings, the handmade paper pages of our BookEnvirons shape the space of the gallery enveloping the viewer. The pages are suspended sequentially from threads that are embedded in the paper during our papermaking process. The pages move rhythmically in response to air currents that are created by the viewer's presence. The ethereal qualities of the artwork are enhanced by the contrast between the delicate appearance of the handmade paper and the mass of the forms.

Eureka Magnolia BookEnviron has the specific goal of transforming an art gallery into a sacred space for interfaith spiritual experiences. Each page of this BookEnviron is positioned as a milepost, celebrating progress. Collectively, the pages of the book embrace the viewer as they bear witness to our seeking of the immaterial universal truths which paradoxically validate our individuality and unite us into a harmonious whole. Imagery embedded in the handmade paper of the pages is inspired by forms and rhythms of nature, whose beauties and mysteries resonate with all faith traditions and provide an interfaith language for the spiritual. This visual language is free of specific verbal language, cultural, and religious references. The sequence of the imagery encourages viewers along mental and spiritual journeys, contemplating aspects of their own individual existence, beliefs, and destinations. The journey through Eureka Magnolia BookEnviron brings the restorative power of nature into the gallery. The Eureka College Chaplain stated, "Modern labyrinths are metaphorical journeys, inviting a prayerful passage, both inward and toward the Holy. The Rives' work of art implies a path, movement, drawing the observer forward and upward. It resembles a labyrinth, yet not one grounded in the earth. Rather, this one artfully reaches upward, inviting a prayerful transcendence."(1) Viewer responses include, "Sublime." "Serene." "Awesome." "Moving." "Fascinating." "Captivating, it takes me to another world." "A moment's retreat from the tyranny of the urgent." "What a blessing!" "The spiritual essence is palpable."(2)

Artists are bringing new life to the book format. In an age when many people think that the book is almost extinct -- set aside in favor of electronic devices, artists are pushing the boundaries of what a book can be. We are investigating the area where nature, artist book, and architecture intersect, where the shaping of the space impacts the viewer's experience with the book. Not just presenting an object to be looked at, but an artwork that changes the viewer's relationship with the space of the gallery and within themselves. We believe that the pages of our books which invoke a sense of nature, and the arrangement of those pages to create an environment, can impact the viewers beyond how they move through the space to affecting their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual awareness.

In the last century, when many people felt photography threatened the validity of painting, Picasso felt liberated, "Now we know at least everything that painting isn't!"(3) He created images beyond the capacity of a camera. We feel that current technologies are freeing the book from the burden of merely being a vehicle for informational text. Artists are freely exploring the book format for expression. We are most excited about pursuing artists' books that are large enough to share aspects with architecture and yet communicate elements of the sublime in nature. This is a rich area to explore beyond the capacity of e-books. Our BookEnvirons are intended to bring physical and spiritual experiences closer together, to encourage viewers to engage in their own intangible inner journeys that only they can access, to open the door to a place within themselves where the physical senses give way to the spiritual essence, where self meets soul and each can learn and grow from the other.

(1) Rev. Bruce Fowlkes, Artful Prayer, 2009
(2)Excerpts from Guest Book, Eureka Magnolia BookEnviron, 2009
(3)Dore Ashton, Picasso on Art: A Selection of Views (New York: Viking, 1972), 109.

UNjust is a one-of-a-kind handbound book. The narrative explores our broken justice system, healthcare and unemployment system through a personal relationship destroyed by drug use/abuse. The materials consist of monotypes, transfers and hand coloring on Rives BFK.

Text, image 4:
He goes fishing; she works 50 hours a week.

Text, image 5:
She pays hundreds for medical insurance. He's encouraged to get a divorce so that his medical benefits will improve. He gets arrested, again, showing up high one day after he's released. She tears the wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen.

The 20+ images in this book are hand-carved MDF relief prints that have been printed by hand on Thai Kozo and Kasugami papers. The front and back covers of the book are made of hand-carved MDF. This raw material is generally used as an inexpensive construction material. In this case, it is used as both a printmaking matrix and a protective material, enclosing and protecting the book's vulnerable interior.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: Front cover. Both the front and back covers are hand carved MDF. They are attached to the book block by Japanese book cloth with a stab binding variation. Each book in the edition of five has a unique carved image on the front cover.

Image 2: First page. It is a hand-carved MDF relief print of the title. It is printed on Kasugami paper. This image also shows the stab binding variation used to bind the pages and attach them to the front and back covers.

Image 3: Open book. It displays a few of the 20+ unique images used to illustrate the book's visual narrative. Each relief print is hand-printed on Thai Kozo paper. Each page is french folded at the foreedge. The subtle transparency of the paper allows for several pages of images to be viewed when the book is open to one single spread.

Image 4: Open book. It also displays a few of the 20+ unique images used to illustrate the book's visual narrative. Again you can see that the transparency of the paper allows for smooth visual and narrative transition between spreads.

Image 5: Detailed image of one of the unique images in the book. Each image has been hand-carved out of MDF and hand-printed by the artist on Thai Kozo paper. You can see that the image of the split feather interacts with the audible mouth image through the transparency of the paper, forming a visual dialog.

Many of the techniques that I employ are informed by both traditional and non-traditional artistic practices. Mostly, I am interested in utilizing the pure components inherent in the books themselves -- such as inks, covers, pages, book marks, binding threads, book headbands -- and scrambling the formal arrangement of them to create evocative artworks that express ideas in veiled layers of meaning.

I am interested in the fact that the discarded books that I work with have been lovingly handled, marked and cared for by another hand and I hope to enhance these qualities through my finished works. This reconfiguration of used books into sculptures explore and redefine the book as familiar object, medium, and archetypal form.

fragile, shared, beautiful
An invisible beauty, our sea of air is intricately balanced. 10 million years of equilibrium. But, beginning with the industrial age and our increasing use of fossil fuels, this delicate balance has been disturbed. To regain that balance, most scientists agree that we must reduce carbon dioxide levels in the air by at least 10% to 350 parts per million.

can we put the pieces of Creation back together?
In my sculptural work A Simple History of the Atmosphere, building blocks contain imagery inspired by the creation story in Genesis -- land, the sea, birds, fish, vegetation, music as the work of culture. Like its subject, if the blocks become disassociated, it takes real work to put them back together again.

In America, individuals are responsible for roughly two thirds of all energy use. Not the military, not big government, but our way of living is responsible for that! We must tend the invisible.

Extended description and text for Image #3:

Columns of stacked blocks create "walls" that stand in front of the open box. On the single column on the left I note some components of air:
nitrogen,
oxygen,
carbon dioxide,
in parts per million
as it was 200 years ago,
and the way it is now.

I end with lyrics from Edward Sander's "Refuse to be Burnt-Out":
The answer is
...not to be hesitant,
...not to be uniformed,
...not to be isolated,
but rather, we must act!

Snippets of life may be captured in a photo, a letter, a journal, or an obituary. Giving life to something that is "gone" is often my inspiration for a piece and the viewer is often encouraged to interact with the piece in its new life.

The house that one grew up in, the corner deli, the old movie theater, the amusement park, the grammar school building, that favorite street corner, etc. These places play a significant role in a society's daily functions, places where memories are created, shared and relived. Many of these are now in the process of slowly disintegrating; giving way to the upheaval of mass construction. Often these structures can evoke a viewer's emotional and psychological response; returning one back to a cherished moment.

In Once Westinghouse, I have examined a turn-of-the-century factory building which at one time housed hundreds of assembly line workers. Closed, vacant and boarded up for several decades, this Newark, New Jersey location served as a monument to a once bustling and productive community. Before its destruction in 2009, this stark, block long edifice, with its fading brick facade and diminishing signage stood as a symbol of an American workforce considered the backbone of a thriving economy.

The piece itself, constructed with a traditional binding, consists of 84 cast paper windows adhered to a facade of pigmented handmade paper and then combined with architectural elements devised of miniature plastic components to mimic the actual structure which once stood. In its interior pages, digital images have been reproduced and enhanced with pen and ink to produce a ghostlike view of those which still seem to exist there in a perpetual state of being, frozen in time.

The idea for this book came up when I met Tawada at the New York Public Library where both of us were invited for a symposium. Shortly before we met, I had read an essay of hers titled "Wohnen in Japan" (German for "Living in Japan") in which she describes the following:

Sushi, which symbolizes light and luxurious simplicity, clarity and health, represents Japanese cuisine in the U.S. and Europe. Although this dish is popular in Japan as well, it shows only one aspect of the multifaceted cuisine, and it is easy to find Japanese dishes that juxtapose the aesthetics of Sushi, like for example Katsu-Kare (Schnitzel on rice, served with curry sauce), Pizza-Manju (Chinese dumplings, filled with various pizza toppings), or the pancake-like Okonomiyaki, for which you can use almost all ingredients you like. Mayonnaise, brown sauce and seaweed powder are combined as well as tuna and filet steak. This pancake tastes much better than you would think, and in Japan, it is more popular than Sushi.

The theme of this essay is the idealistic and blurred perception of the Japanese culture in other countries, and after reading it, I invited Yoko Tawada to create an okonomiyaki book together. Okonomiyaki in the first place stands as a symbol for cultural misunderstandings. In my eyes, Tawada, who has been living in Germany since 1982 and writes in German as well as in Japanese, was the perfect author for this subject, because she knows both cultures very well and is not tempted to write polemically about each other's misunderstandings. But even though we decided to work together, it took us another three years until the book was finally completed.

Every fragment of the text is allocated to one ingredient an okonomiyaki is made of. I started to work with patterns that appear when you pour sauce and mayonnaise over a fried okonomiyaki. Everyone has his own method of pouring the sauce, like simple spiral forms, subtle lines, or even comic strip-like characters. I made a mixture of glue and ink which has the texture of the popular Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and filled it in an empty bottle of this brand. Then I asked friends to paint their patterns on cardboard, so I got a wide range of variations. I transferred these patterns to polymer plates and printed them on very smooth and shiny Bicchu-Ganpi paper. Every pattern faces a detail of an enlargement which brings the 'sauce patterns' onto a new aesthetic level. The blue-black printed pages are overlaid by another layer of Bicchu-Ganpi with a circle printed in transparent white resembling the moon or an okonomiyaki -- according to the theme of cultural misunderstandings. Because of the fine paper and the delicate colors, the reader may on the first hand think of the moon, but reading the text fragments printed on the fold of each double spread, the picture of an okonomiyaki arises. This impression is also mirrored in the layering of the papers since the okonomiyaki is a dish in which there are not only plenty of ingredients mixed, but also layered on top of each other.

The theme of layering is also shown in the Japanese edition. The Japanese text (not a translation of the German text) consists of fifteen fragments like its German counterpart, each of them belonging to the same expressions as in the German text. Nevertheless, Tawada's associations differ, which shows her different way of thinking and feeling in both cultures and languages.

The Japanese fragments are printed one by one; I fold the paper in a way that every fragment is placed in a single box pleat.The transparent white ink is seen as a single strip appearing from time to time between the text-fragments. The sauce-patterns are not printed by polymer plates like in the German edition, but painted directly onto the paper with the same glue-ink mixture I used previously.

Both editions are composed of the same "ingredients": fifteen text-fragments, Bicchu-Ganpi paper, letterpress in black and transparent white, the O-shape, box pleats and sauce-patterns; but the outcome is very different -- just okonomi!

The third part of the book consists of two sheets of oiled paper printed with a Japanese calligraphy. The original was painted by the owner of a traditional lantern manufacturer in Asakusa, Tokyo. In this workshop, paper lanterns for restaurants are made and painted. On the oiled sheets, you can read "Yoko Tawada" and "Okonomiyaki". The yellow, smelly paper evokes the odor which one finds stuck to his clothes after spending some time in an okonomiyaki restaurant.

All three parts of the book are protected by folded cardboard jackets and put together in an acrylic box printed with a matte circle shape and the title in both German and Japanese.

The life of human beings is a coming and going of proteins. Once I remarked to an acquaintance in Frankfurt that 100 grams of tofu contain more protein than 100 grams of chicken. Since Germans use the word Eiweiß (egg white) to mean "protein," he shook his head in denial and said: That's impossible. Soybeans don't lay eggs. Where's the egg white supposed to come from?

The Japanese name for squid is ika, which also means "estrangement."

It is not a virtue for a human being to act in a way that might be described as sticky, slimy or gooey. These are the very qualities, however, that are expected of a yamaimo root when it is grated. It can be eaten plain or stirred into okonomiyaki batter. Yogurt, stinky natto beans, stinky cheese, yamaimo: Everything slimy and stinky helps one live a long life.

In the Pacific Ocean one finds no rectangular fish known as fish sticks swimming about.

Ginger is said to be remarkably potent. But not everyone knows where its true potency lies.

An okonomiyaki is nothing more than a pancake, its batter made of wheat flour and water. What's special about it, though, is the important role played in its preparation by individual preferences (konomi). You can add anything you like. You can ignore all conventions and tradition. Some even add a splash of Coca-Cola to keep the dough light.

In Germany, mayonnaise is a scapegoat. Every modern illness, every breach of taste, every skinhead, every economic crisis, every act of pollution and every corporate debauchery can apparently be attributed to the acceptance of mayonnaise. For an okonomiyaki, however, it has meanwhile become virtually indispensible. Mayonnaise is a strange intermediary, uniting a lean, masochistic saint with overweight creativity.

Slice a swine in twain and keep silent with the knife blade's swain.

Mentaiko: portraits of unborn codfish painted with red pearls.

Strawberries and chocolate can be found wherever girlishness is celebrated.

The scallop has two pillars in the middle of its shell.

To make an economiyaki, you would use only organic vegetables.

I dreamt of a field in which countless heads were growing. The pale heads of cabbages. The sky was dark blue. The moon sat upon a utility pole. How much time remains before the next chapter begins? Two cabbage leaves detached themselves from a head of cabbage and flew up in the air, fluttering in the lukewarm breeze. They remained there side by side. Soon it grew dark, but the two luminous leaves did not lose one another. How much longer must they fly side by side before they become a butterfly?

Good taste is a product of upper-class anxieties. Bad taste, on the other hand, has no origin but determines the colors of the here and now.

Upon the hotplate lies a map of the world on which every guest can draw his own imaginary continent. Forests of green seaweed sprout in a mayonnaise swamp, while tiny dried crabs swim about shyly. A hungry landscape knows no national borders.

Japanese edition (translated by Margaret Mitsutani):

Protein isn’t plain but it plainly packs a punch. It seeps inside you from the yellow of an egg yelling "Get up! Get moving!" as it disappears down your gullet. Go-team! Pro-team! Pro-tein! Like a real pro you slurp and gobble ‘til the white and the yellow, teeming with life, are all yours.

Cuttle fish, alien cultures, dried cuttle fish, can I cut it? Can I cuttle it? No, not yet. Can I cuttle it out and come in now? No, stay in your octopus pot.

Things that turn the stomach: gooey guys, soupy sentiments, sticky stories. Things that are good for you: gooey fermented soybeans, soupy yogurt, sticky Japanese yam. Mixing grated yam into okonomiyaki batter makes it stick together. Stickiness is important in all things. Don’t give up so easily, stick to it, stick to it.

Perfectly square fish swam through the Pacific Ocean. They came from the northern seas, and were called "fish sticks." They were covered with greasy batter, but their hearts were frozen.

Though not much use, useless guys can keep your spirits up. Muddling through mumbling, "It's no use, it's no use," keeps the spirit intact.

All you need to make German bread are flour and water. In that sense, it’s just like okonomiyaki. According to your own konomi (preference) you can put in anything you like. But what about German bread? You can mix in sunflower (himawari) seeds, but what about a seedy old copper (omawari)? You can put walnuts (kurumi) in, but how about nutty humor (karumi)? The strength of okonomiyaki is that you can add whatever you like. But actually, people are swayed by the latest fad, so they only add whatever is popular.

I hear that recently it's more popular to put mayo-tsuna* inside rice-balls than the traditional pickled plum. At first, when there was some doubt (mayoi) as to whether tsuna was the right center for rice balls, it was called mayoi-tsuna, which was later shortened to mayo-tsuna. What is tsuna? A powerful sumo wrestler called Yokotsuna joins with a life-line (inochi-no-tsuna) to form a bond so strong it can’t be broken. What is tsuna? Canned longfin tuna in oil. Which means that only cans swimming through the ocean are called tsuna. Tuna without cans are called maguro, because their demons (ma) are black (kuro). Tuna with red (aka) demons are called ma-aka.
*In Japanese, tuna is pronounced tsuna.

In Japanese, pigs are called buta, which is also the sound a kitchen knife makes when it comes down on a chopping block. After slicing some pork, Bu! Ta! Bu! Ta! you fall silent along with the knife blade.

Mentaiko is a sweet child (ko). The child of a fish that was never born. Wearing red lipstick like a caviar-woman.

Let's get this straight. Middle-aged men like chocolate and strawberries too, you know. You got a problem with that?

You chew on chewy shellfish. As though you’ve slipped back to the Jomon period*, you chew and chew and chew.
*the Jomon period: from about 14,000—4,000 BCE

Eco-nomiyaki is made only with organic vegetables.

Several human heads grow in a vegetable patch. They’re heads all right, but heads of cabbage. The sky has sunken to a deep blue, while the moon smolders with light as it rolls across the telegraph wires. When are you going to make cabbage rolls again? Cabbage leaves fall neatly off the head, form pairs, and fly away through the sky. A pair of cabbage leaves, flying side by side. When will they become one butterfly?

The 'mi' of the Japanese word 'shumi'* is written with the Chinese character for "taste". So it’s your tongue that determines all your preferences. Personalities can be sharp and tangy, or bland and insipid. What's your taste in people? In books? In sounds? Until you find your favorite flavor, you spend a lifetime grilling okonomiyaki.
*shumi can mean hobby, interest, taste or preference.

The map of the world spread out on the grill is an edible one called okonomiyaki. Prairies of green seaweed, forests of cabbage, mayonnaise swamps, the whole scene peppered with tiny red shrimp in full bloom. Ms. Noodle, Mr. Dumpling, show me your passports. Ms. Cheese, your hairstyle is completely different from your visa photo. What did you say? Margherita? Suddenly I'm famished. Let's do away with national borders. Okonomiyaki is a world without borders.

In my work, I try to make all aspects of the book integral to the whole. For me, this is the essence of book arts. I open myself to the relationship that develops between the content and the structure of the book. I use the structural form of the book (the design, materials, printing, and binding) to bring the content (the essence and the "feel" of images, a story, or text) to life. This is the case with Arthur & Barbara, an artists' book produced in collaboration with Thomas Rose.

Arthur & Barbara is a portrait of art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto and artist Barbara Westman seen reflected in the space of their New York City apartment on Riverside Drive. It takes the reader on an exploration of the space inhabited by these public figures of the global arts community. It provides an opportunity to engage in their private space as rendered in the form of an artists' book. It is abstract yet offers insight into the lives of the individuals. This book embodies their life and work in symbolic forms of thoughtful play.

Arthur & Barbara is a collection of simple objects, images and "games" referring to both Duchamp's Boîte-en-valise and to Fluxus Collections. The mahogany box has interior spaces lined in green book cloth. The spaces are contained beneath glass that is laser-etched with a plan view of the apartment. The box also contains a DVD with images of Arthur, Barbara and their apartment, handmade dice, a glass weight with a laser etched illustration by Barbara Westman, four chairs, and a spinner. The drawer in the box contains a folio of letters written by Sean Scully, Shirin Neshat, Thomas Rose and Barbara Westman, and an introduction by David Carrier.

There is also a book in the box. Its shape suggests a cube and it has a wire-edge binding. The images in this book are of the apartment and objects in the apartment. Barbara is a visual artist and Arthur is a writer; therefore, the text integrated throughout the book explores the nature of visual versus written communication. That there is a book in the box but the box is the book raises the question, "what is a book?"

The mission of my imprint, Indulgence Press, is to integrate form and content through the production of high quality art and craft while exploring and expanding on the history of the book. For me, Arthur & Barbara acheives this goal and more. It explores the nature of art and philosophy, two subjects that are integrated into the life and work of both Arthur and Barbara.

Feather boas may have fallen in and out of fashion for well over 100 years, but throughout that time have consistently been suggestive of vulgar behavior and striptease. The value of a feather boa is determined by its construction and the quality or rarity of the feathers used ranging from tens to thousands of dollars. A skilled burlesque dancer of high repute and regard will use only the finest boa in her performance of seduction, while a common stripper may not be so discerning of quality.

Dumped for a Stripper is a sculptural book in the form of a feather boa. For over a year I collected the molted pigeon feathers that I found on the streets and sidewalks while living in London. These once beautiful, now overlooked and discarded feathers vary in their physical condition and degradation depending on how long they have been exposed to the elements. The ritual of collecting feathers began as a very intentional, consuming process and over time evolved into a thoughtless, even forgetful act, much in the same way that I had once grieved over this lost love. I used a transfer printing method to add text to the feathers. The text printed onto the feathers includes derogatory slang, scientific text describing transmissible feather diseases and bacterial degradation, recent correspondence and old love letters. The text is a combination of repetitive phrasing and prose indicating both dwelling and fleeting thoughts and memories. I researched the traditional methods of constructing a boa and took great care in individually hand-sewing each feather into a braided silk core. The combination of materials and process -- the tattered, found pigeon feathers and the precious, time-consuming technique -- are representative of how quickly I felt discarded and my own process of coming to terms with the end of a relationship.

Installation note (Image 1): Hanging off-center on a wall mounted coat hook. This is purposely contrary to the appropriate way of hanging a feather boa. A feather boa that is cared for will always be hung on a hook or hanger by the loops on each end so as not to damage the feathers

A few years later, we had to move away from my grandmother because my father transferred jobs to a different area. We were not able to live with my grandmother anymore. Four years after we moved out, my grandmother passed away. While I was putting away her things, I found a small box on the shelf in her closet. In the box were her old sewing tools and at least ten pairs of socks that I had thrown away. All of them were neatly patched by her.

Ever since, I have wondered why she patched my old socks so meticulously, putting her heart into fixing them, stitch by stitch... and why she kept them in her closet for all those years...

This work is about polar bears and it is also related to environmental issue. Nevertheless this is a real serious matter, global warming is a problem for everyone. During ice melting, there is a big impact of flooding and people are suffering during these disaster events. It's not just about polar bears, other animals are impacted; penguins and other winter species are going extinct because of global warming. A lot of media belives that this is not relevant to our daily life, however people need to be aware of this serious subject, people cannot ignore or neglect global warming. People may find global warming is quite heavy to digest or understand. This is one reason why I want my audience to participate. I want my audience to understand this is a real crisis and disaster. I want them to know global warming would destroy our daily life. Througout participation of audience it will be more interesting for audience and they would reconsider what the real issue is coming to global warming.

This work is made so you can open each page from each direction. White pages mean sea ice, the acting of turning the pages represents the melting of sea ice. I put some letters by letterpress in each page, so you can read completed sentence "Polar bear wants to walk on the sea ice" when you reach the last page of the book. Finally, only a sky blue page remains, to express after melting of sea ice, only sea remains. Through my work, I wanted to make people reconsider it and pay attention to what they are doing wrong.

Text:

Polar bear wants to walk on the sea ice.

Polar bears enjoy hunting on the sea ice. They swim across sea ice, they can only swim 100km. So sea ice is very important to them. Recently, because of global warming, sea ice surface has reduced. Therefore, polar bears die when they swim across too long distance. Polar Bear International association estimates that in year 2050, the polar bear will face extinction.

The Bone Book was inspired by the unexpected death of a close friend in August of 2010. Her death brought me to examine my own feelings about the process of decay. There is beauty in every aspect of life, including, and maybe even more, in death. She showed me this beauty.

This book focuses on various iconographic images referencing death: Papyrus, representing a thin reference to the Egyptian pyramids. The poppy seed pod, opium, the little death. The "animal bones" on the cover, the bone white cover & decaying pages of the book, washed clean of whatever words may have been engraved in their history. The portfolio at the back with a few protected scraps, yet to decay completely. The bone scull beads keeping those scraps safe, & foreshadowing the image hidden in the spine. The skull tucked away in the spine, empty of any thought… My aim was to bring ideas from several different cultures together in one piece representing a human perspective on this portion of the life cycle.

I am a printmaker and book artist. I create small edition books and one-of-a-kind works of art, combining text, imagery, and nontraditional housing. Everything is comfortable to the hand, a pleasure to the eye and a sense of heart for the soul. In making artist books, I am able to use the intimacy, flexibility, the movement through time, and interactive-ness of the book structure. Multiple techniques are used in the imagery; hand-painted images, painterly printed scenes, or collaged layers of paper, the books themselves are sculptures. Once the pages are printed, painted or collaged, and text letterpress-printed, they are bound nontraditionally and housed in a container that adds to the whole. All is done with precision, craftsmanship and an understanding of the bigger picture. Some books depart from the traditional feel of a book, others contain a familiar format, whatever fits with the concept. All are interactive, to be held, touched, viewed and read.

A book held in one's hands creates an intimate bond with the viewer. It allows the content to be integrated with their past and their present, creating that "Ah, hah!" moment, leading to a new understanding, new perception, new experience -- creating something that will add to the perception of being connected to those around them.

Looking at the world through different eyes, each of us views it in similar ways. Horizontal Grandeur, an essay written by Bill Holm, describes seeing through "prairie eyes". It is the perfect words relating the feeling of intoxication of the large expanses of the landscape with all the details available. Using the text as part of the imagery, this book encompasses the abounding, organic beauty of the prairie: the wide paper, the tall grasses, and the joyous colors. The text runs horizontally across the 50 inches of the paper, making the viewer move the length of the paper and experience the largeness of the prairie.

Connections: to the land, to our past, to each other. In this divided time, being able to find a bond with whoever and whatever is around us is not only desired but needed. My work is tender not harsh. It is a look at what brings us together.

Walking in Circles (2009): Functioning as a visual metaphor for Shuster's carbon footprint, each of the eleven wintergreen transfer prints focuses on a different environmental issue impacted by her actions, both positive and negative. Pages are housed in a shoe-like structure, bound with a shoelace. When opened, the pages rotate out in radial fashion.

Each footprint is my own, an ink print, scanned and digitally manipulated in Adobe Photoshop. The digital artwork was then printed on a copier in reverse, and hand-burnished to Canson heavyweight paper using wintergreen oil. Each footprint represents the impact of my carbon footprint on the earth, both good and bad. From a map of my 30 mile roundtrip commute and gas receipts saved over a 3-month period, to energy efficient light bulbs, each page reveals a different concern that I struggle with and ultimately leaves me feeling as though I am walking in circles on these issues. Fully opened, you can see a bit of text revealed in the center.

Much of my work focuses on the image of text based on a Cabalistic belief, which explains that two holy books were actually handed down: the Black Torah and the White Torah. The Black one is made of all the black letters while the White Torah is made up of all the space between them -- between the words and between the letters -- where the Cabalists believed true wisdom could be found. My interest is interlinearity, this "in-between", the portion of knowledge and the world that we ignore or omit, or consider negative space -- the pause in a sentence, the gesture before the act, the twilight between two portions of the day. One aspect of this search is language cognition: what words can actually communicate and their limitations. Can ideas exist without language and words? And, if the word order defines meaning, is it the words themselves or the spaces between that contain those ideas? The resulting artist books, whether made as objects or installations, force the viewer to re-consider the very act of "reading".

My Rondo is based on István Örkény's impressive one page "novella", which includes irony, culture specific details, musical references, and a Post-Modern tempo all in his "to-the-point story" of typist Mrs. Wolf. Its density literally acquired an outsized form when it is here re-written and re-interpreted as an artist book, where the musical rondo form clashes with its postmodern rhythm. The choreography of the read is here defined by both the typography (and its manipulation) and the structure, as the reader moves back and forth through pages bound left- and right-side within two booklets that are bound inside of the case, that is triptych is form.

The narrative, about a female typist, Mrs. Wolf, who works in an office for 25 years, is transformed into a sound poem and homage to the support workers (so often women) who keep systems functioning by remaining small cogs in very large systems.

A sound performance on DVD is part of the book. The music, "Mrs. Wolf's Dream", was composed and performed by Hungarian percussionist András Dés, who used papers I made for him (similar to the cover paper) as his instrument.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: (top) Artist book front cover: embedded DVD as title plate under Dobbin Mill cotton rag paper pulp painted with commentary on text within; (bottom) Artist book with triptych cover open. Left booklet open to 4th page / right booklet closed. Both booklets are archival inkjet printed on handmade translucent abaca papers.

Image 2: Detail of 7th page with text manipulation. Booklet has double spine and right spine is bound at this point. This page is narrower than the others so the viewer not only sees the text imagery through the translucency but also on the left side. On the right one can also see the blue cloth spine of the 2nd portion of the triptych cover.

Image 3: Left booklet fully pulled out to its final pages. Archival inkjet printed on translucent abaca. Central image of 2 catalog cards from the Brooklyn Museum of Art Library.

Image 4: Left booklet closed. Last page is pulp painted cotton rag. Right booklet also closed. Right book cover made of papers with embedded text. Central panel has thin translucent abaca sheet with hand-typed text, attached at the head.

Image 5: A sound performance on DVD is part of the book. The music, "Mrs. Wolf's Dream" was composed and performed by Hungarian percussionist András Dés using papers similar to the cover paper as his instrument. Colophon card removed from DVD pocket and laid out on verso.

Much of my work focuses on the image of text based on a Cabalistic belief, which explains that two holy books were actually handed down: the Black Torah and the White Torah. The Black one is made of all the black letters while the White Torah is made up of all the space between them -- between the words and between the letters -- where the Cabalists believed true wisdom could be found. My interest is interlinearity, this "in-between", the portion of knowledge and the world that we ignore or omit, or consider negative space -- the pause in a sentence, the gesture before the act, the twilight between two portions of the day. One aspect of this search is language cognition: what words can actually communicate and their limitations. Can ideas exist without language and words? And, if the word order defines meaning, is it the words themselves or the spaces between that contain those ideas? The resulting artist books, whether made as objects or installations, force the viewer to re-consider the very act of "reading".

Solomon's Wisdom: A Fable, A Poem A Eulogy A Dream Ten Nests and Eight Holes is a book that exemplifies this interlinearity. A eulogy to my mother is printed, then ripped apart and stapled back together again. In doing so, each of the 8 pages leaves a gaping hole. This physical manifestation of the act of creating is simultaneously an homage to motherhood, a declaration of the limitation of language to sum up a life, and a nod to the wisdom that the sum of parts can never equal the whole.

The book works with three additional texts, which complement the eulogy: A synopsis of the Judgment of Solomon fable, where the king resolves a fight between two mothers by proposing to rip the child in two; excerpts from the poem "The Word" by Pablo Neruda, where he defines the birth of life as the birth of the word; and a text fragment based on a dream, where my mother leaves me on a bus and dances away; along with a set of rendered and cut photographs of birds' nests. All the material presented is fragmented and incomplete.

Extended descriptions of images:

Image 1: Clamshell case with artist book inside on left and title inkjet printed on its base on the right. Graphite pigmented cotton rag & hemp papers (Dobbin Mill). Translucent abaca paper title plate with inkjet printing.

Image 2: Artist book opened to 1 of 4 eulogy pages. Inkjet printed text ripped out and stapled back in with stainless steel staples, leaving a hole. Dobbin Mill graphite pigmented papers.

Image 3: Artist book open to first nest image on translucent abaca on verso and hole in text on recto. Nest image is filligré hand-cut.

Image 4: Artist book open to Recto: one fourth of three texts: a synopsis of the Judgment of Solomon fable, excerpts from the poem "The Word" by Pablo Neruda, and a text fragment based on the artist's dream. Verso: back of ripped-up and restapled eulogy page with hole to see through to previous pages.

Image 5: Artist book open to 2nd nest image on translucent abaca on recto and hole in text on verso. Nest image is filligre hand-cut.

The research I have done has a poetic bent in terms of the texts that interest me about bees. People have been hunting honey for over 4,000 years. There are many ideas about how bees created their hives, wax and honey, many of which seem fanciful now, but the wonder about these small creatures remains. The pages have been waxed with beeswax from a local beekeeper who comes to our Farmers' Market. I enjoy the sound and the smell that the wax has given the pages. I have worked hard, like a little busy bee, sewing and waxing and assembling the pages together. I have been donated proceeds from sales of bee prints to organizations investigating colony collapse disorder. I have also worked with beekeepers... Who knew how it was all going to play out? Associative Miscellany I will be exhibited in Kyoto this summer as part of the Mokuhanga Conference in Japan.

Annie Silverman (USA) and Wilma Vissers (NL) met at Art Center Clo Ceardlann na gCoc (abbreviated "an Clo") in County Donegal In Ireland. They both stayed and worked as an artist-in-residence in 2010. After this meeting they decided to cooperate together on a project by creating two books. The subject of these books are the images and ideas gained at their stay at an Clo which is surrounded by a starkly empty yet beautiful landscape. Annie and Wilma only overlapped at Clo for five days, yet have a strong aesthetic and creative bond from sharing the experience of being in residence (albeit separately) at such a remote, physically powerful location. Both artists are urban dwellers, so the experience of being 7 km from the only grocery store was challenging.

The books were handmade by Wilma, one book for Wilma and the other for Annie. Annie is adding things -- painting, sewing, printing -- to Wilma's book, and Wilma is adding things to Annie's book. So on and off, both books are filled with each other's fantasies, thoughts and ideas about those weeks in Ireland.

The books are made with pages that differ in size. The first page is an normal one. The second page is double this size and it is folded. Images that Annie made mix with images that Wilma has created. Drawings change and are physically influenced by what follows on the next pages. Wilma's pristine black drawing is smudged and gets the tracings of Annie's bottle drawings. Annie's pages are physically changed by being pieced from Wilma's sewn sandpaper. Themes that Annie started are picked up and commented on by wilma. Annie is influenced by Wilma's choice of materials or what she has written across Mt. Errigal. On and on it goes, the books traveling back and forth across the ocean. The call and response of folded pages.

All collagists to some extent worship the book. We revere the images, the text, and the aged paper, often cannibalizing volumes in order to mine the raw material for our collage work. Lately, I have become focused on using collage to create handmade books and/or altering existing books to transform them into something new. This is one of those efforts.

The existing book was a slender, older British volume composed largely of text with some smallish photos highlighting the historical eruptions of Mt. Vesuvius, the beautiful but destructive volcano which haunts Naples and destroyed Pompeii. The book included a few eruption photos and discussions of various vintage pieces of art reflecting the times. In altering and transforming the book, I have attempted to interact with the existing text and photos, and remain true to the subject matter of the text. Each page has been substantially altered to explore themes of danger, a murderous environment, terrible beauty and small moments of life lived in the shadow of danger (with occasional touches of whimsy). Almost nothing remains of the original text and photo plates, but hopefully the transformed book has gained impact and carries forward the spirit of the great and terrible Vesuvius.

Book artists generally create the entire book "from scratch" incorporating highly detailed and refined artistry. In contrast yet similarly articulated, my focus is to build book art within the framework of a discarded book, imposing my original works as well as applying historical texts and images. In this way, I can write a narrative and bring it visually to life.

I like to think of my works of art as similar to Robert Cornell's boxes, but using a book as the container. I, too, love to explore flea markets for ephemera, second hand stores, even the pavement at the recycle center for tokens. Every walk I take is like a Magpie's flight, seeking gifts in the form of a distressed bottle cap, scrap of rusted metal, or wire bristle from the street sweeper.

My books are meant to be held and experienced in order to be appreciated. Each work is a unique combination of artist, altered, chapbook, collage, mixed media, palimpsest, work-on-paper. With the digital deluge of our virtual times, the tangible feel of holding a work of art in book form hopefully provides a connection to what is still possible and real. But also, with the digital deluge of our virtual times -- for accessibility -- I seek to incorporate this genre by creating a CD experience in companion with my books, yet still based on the foundation of individual works of art.

With a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew traveled throughout Benin, Mopti, remote areas such as Peperkou, introducing himself to the people he met and all of us to reality. The result, a book of poems; lilting one moment, piercing, bright and light the other: Both Sides of the Niger, emerged. This book, I believe, is a journey that will linger for years.

Many have contributed to Both Sides of the Niger: Chris Manders, a professional photographer from Australia; NASA, with the distant view of Africa from the Hubbell Space Telescope; Paul Williams, an American photographer, showing us the Voodoo Fetish Market in Lomé; and most importantly, the poet. His artistry is translated from word to vision as photographers and artists dance next to him.

Given my skills, I was inspired to create just a few hand-made books sewn with care. I do not have these other folks' talents, but I like to believe I have a talent for the creative and the visual; published by human hand as well as standard fare. Each photograph is protected by an antifatigue sheet of translucent vellum, the cover is printed on handmade rag papers created by artists. There is a cloth bookmark with an emblem hanging from the spine. Each page is created individually with thought to presentation and creativity. It is not a book of radical departure from standard methods of publication, but it is a book for unique flair and style. I have only made approximately 10 hand-made books. A standard run of Both Sides of the Niger will be available for sale; these handmade books will not. Time-intensive, carefully made, I hope they meet the eyes of what others might call art.

Outside, lanky, tall elm trees cast long summer shadows as the afternoon slips away. I reminisce about my parents' lessons. "Man can exist with food and water, but man cannot live without love, beauty and nature." And, most importantly, "Take care of the living first."

Life had revealed her eternal truth
She learned to tame tensions
To fight the raging winds
To ease the rains
To stick firmly to her branch
She had flourished in Spring
And had lived her whole existence
Just for this moment
Sublime and evanescent
A gentle breeze swayed her mates
Eventually they would join her
It was time to let herself go
To release, to float and fall down
On the white fabric (underneath)
That was all,
It was just a matter of giving up existence (being)

The details of the photographs for this bookproject "DIARY" are taken from his photoseries "ON THE ROAD TOO". Dutch artist Peter Spaans (Amsterdam, 1953) drove with his American friend Dan Schmidt 6,700 miles (11,000 kilometers) from New York City to Las Vegas and back to New York City in just 19 days. They decided that they would travel as much as possible on older National highways and on State roads rather than on the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. They knew that such a journey would afford them views of cities and towns, as well as of rural America, that one would not see from the Interstate Highways. Peter Spaans made 11,000 photographs during this trip. Most of the photographs were taken between 10am and 5pm, as the light was brightest at that time of day. Spaans finally selected 1080 photographs, one image per page of the book. It is an extended, raw, uncensored, and uncommon visual report and study of America seen 19 days in a row, during a car trip across America. Unique is that Peter Spaans always photographed from the car. On the outward journey Peter Spaans generally captured his images from the open window on the right side of the car, or by the windshield. On the return trip he frequently photographed from the back of the car, either right or left side, depending on the position of the sun, and always with the window open. Day in, day out he focused on fixed points such as the grandness of the natural countryside, or electric and telephone wires, petrol stations, motels, churches, restaurants; he pointed his camera at houses and factories either empty, boarded up and abandoned, or inhabited.

Peter Spaans photographed the diary pages of his father in the same way as he normally photographed cities and streets. Fast, normal as possible and sometimes not very well focussed. The relation between both diaries are: father/son, old/young, now and then, free trip versus forced trip, long trip/short trip and so on. In his body of work Peter Spaans ignores obvious subject matter such as famous landmarks; he is more interested in the ordinary cityscapes / lndscapes, and spaces that are often (or not) photographed or videotaped by many different people. For Spaans, it is important to understand these common urban spaces and how they function, as he believes they are what influence our lives the most. These are the spaces we encounter each day; they are where we live our normal day to day lives.

Peter Spaans' photographs are postcards dispatched from the frayed edges of the modern world. A world of commerce, decaying industrial buildings and machinery. In these works, the vanquished relics of modern aspiration declare themselves like haunting monuments to man's desire to imagine a future unencumbered by the past. Where history is retained, it appears in the form of erased presences, such as abandoned, empty lots or gentrified ghettos. These silent works turn the city into catacombs. But while there are recognizable, common elements in Spaans' work, it still cannot be summarized. Though it has a documentary quality, a casual artlessness belies the tough investigative stance that asks us to look again at the surroundings of the city we thought we knew. From the thousands of photographs Spaans has taken, it becomes apparent that major cities such as New York, Berlin and his native Amsterdam serve as character studies for his work. Like a flaneur he trawls abandoned landscapes in these exhausted industrial worlds, treating the built structures like examples of nature. Instead of cornfields, however, we find concrete pavements, the rusting hulks of bridges, fading advertising signs, barricaded storefronts, shiny, phallic skyscrapers that are almost a condensation of power and ruthless aspiration, aerial views of the city, impersonal hotel rooms, paint peeling from the facade of buildings. Or one may view these photographs as extended essays, in which the artist seeks to define his own personal relationship with a world that defamiliarizes itself with every encounter. In this sense, rather than looking at each photograph as an individual, autonomous work, it is best to see them as one great work in progress. Each single image is part of a discontinuous narrative providing different interpretations of the various aspects of the cities he visits.

Spaans' work is a rumination on the question of individual memory and identity within the complex processes of the modern city's transformation from a place of utopian desire to an alienating and anonymous entity. It raises such questions as: what can possibly be the identity of a city in the global moment of fast disappearing boundaries? Who are cities for? What is the meaning of place in defining a sense of community and identity? With the increasing loss of faith in the utopian ideals of modernity and the virtualization of space through digital dystopia, time and place are becoming not only irrelevant, but increasingly displaced and fragmented. In this context, Spaans' silent photographs might seem quaint in their obsessive exactitude, which pinpoints the banality of our urban, built environments. But by fixing on those structures that monumentalize modernity and its triumph of reason and industry, Spaans' work stands as a measure of the way in which we encounter the spatial and temporal dynamics that define the global metropolis.
(Text by Okwui Enwezor, from Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture, Phaidon Press, London, 1998.)

My work is not convenient, and its results are not immediate. My creative process confronts immediacy and challenges me to push my skills as a binder towards perfection through repetition. I have an intense curiosity in history, structure, and the production of binding, papermaking, printing, and flax-spinning, as well as tool-making. I use phonebooks because they are readily available, they provide a limited source of material, and they serve as a visual contradiction to my binding methods while remaining culturally relevant.

As I spent more time in the kitchen, alone, channeling my frustrated creative energies into elaborate desserts and amounts of food fit more for families than myself, the silliness and absurdity of the book began to take on a new poignancy. I thought about which of my own loved ones would most enjoy eating what I had made, and how excruciatingly distant I felt in my new home many miles away from the familiar. And so my version of The Romance of Food began taking shape. As I designed the book, I let the produce have its own voice and pondered in a playful, rather abstract way what each fruit or vegetable seemed fit to express. Cooking and sharing food is an eternal, universally understood means of expressing love, concern, and communicating things we may be afraid to say. My version of The Romance of Food explores this communication from another angle, broadening the vegetables' vocabulary to include the quirky, the suggestive, and yes, the sweet. I hope my audience finds my book as amusing and charming as I found the original.

Throughout American history the immigrant has been relegated to the shadows of society. The carvings are a cross-cultural and cross-generational means of personal documentation. The artists' use of paper as a medium epitomizes the ephemeral nature of both the immigrant and the carvings they leave behind. The arborglyphs are quite temporal as aspens only live an average life of 80 years. The short life of the aspen parallels the generational apprenticeship America requires of her new citizens. Thus the demise of the arborglyph often corresponds with the acceptance of the immigrant into society, leaving no trace of the herders' legacy.

Deftly wielding a utility knife, Amy Nack cuts images of trees and leaves into large panels of paper, creating a sculptural landscape of aspen trees. Cutting into the paper simulates the experience of herders cutting into the delicate bark of the aspen. Earle Swope has sojourned into the mountains of Idaho creating plaster and silicone molds of the herders' actual arborglyphs. From these molds the artist has created facsimile castings using cotton paper pulp flecked with aspen baste fibers.

Mood: Potential is a short artist book printed at the Center for Book & Paper Arts in Chicago. It is printed in duotone, referencing the two-part composites of each spread. Sections of photographs are repeated and combined throughout the book. In this way the book stages and un-stages potential landscapes of clouds and trees in a discontinuous, jittery movement by using structures inherent to the book form itself. The title indicates the connection to the potential mood in grammar. "Elisabeth Tonnard presents a jumpy little book of clouds, like one of Gertrude Stein's nervous literary objects, each cloud insecure in its association with frame, page, and the stuttering space around them." (quoted from essay Chris Burnett)

The book was included in the Journal of Artists' Books, number 27, 2010. Chris Burnett wrote an essay about the book, also addressing its connections to photographic history. The essay appeared in the same issue of JAB.

5×7 inch, 32 pages, duotone offset on 80 lb. Dulcet, letterpress on cover and colophon (done in matte varnish to "hide" the text from direct view). The book comes in an enclosure with the title printed in letterpress. The publication was made possible in part by a grant from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB).

Since 2005, Francis Van Maele and Antic-ham work intensively together, publishing artists' books, screenprinted editions, a zine and a collection of assembling boxes under the name of Franticham. They participate in artists' book fairs in London, Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow, Mainz, Paris, Frankfurt, New York, Berkeley, Hamburg and Seoul.

THE Dress was written by my sister, Mary Benedum. The story is a recollection of the day she found the gown for her wedding. The memoir describes the overwhelming emotions she encountered while shopping with myself, our mother and father. She recalls a memory of standing in the store and feeling sincerely grateful for her family's enduring support as well as her excitement for the big day!

The book contains portrait photographs of Ines v. Ketelhodt's maternal and paternal ancestors. They were taken from paintings, drawings, etchings and epitaphs or out of the photo-albums of the v. Stosch and v. Ketelhodt families. Beginning with the 13th century portrait of Peterico Count Stos the following pages show his descendents together with their wives, leading in direct line to Ines v. Ketelhodt. The following pages show, beginning with Ines's father, his ancestors with their wives in direct line. The book ends in the 13th century with Knight Vredebern Ketelhot.

Image 1: The image shows the frontside of the cover, which is letterpress printed (cyan, magenta, yellow) over and over again with the different spellings of the paternal ancestor names "Ketelhot Kiädelhut Kytelhoth Ketelhut Ketelhude Ketelhuedt Ketelhuet Ketelhoden Ketelhutt Ketelhudt Ketelhodt" and of the maternal ancestor names "Stos Stosso Stoschowitz Stochowitz Stoschwitz Stosch". The title "Die bessere Hälfte" is negative printed in black upon all three colors. The black printed label is translucent, so that the letters underneath are still visible.

Image 2: The image shows three ancestors of Ines's mother.The individual portraits were divided in the centre and set together with their spouse to let the "better halves" form a "new person". If a portrait is missing, the personal information ghosts through in reverse, as the respective names and dates of birth and death are printed in letterpress on the back of the portraits, digitally printed on transparent paper. The photographs were image edited on the computer. The cyan, magenta, yellow and black part of the photographs were separately manipulated.

Image 3: The book begins with the 13th century portrait of Peterico Count Stos (maternal ancestor). The following pages show his descendents together with their wives, leading in direct line to Ines v. Ketelhodt together with her husband Peter Malutzki, her "better half". Because this is the center of the book, the couple is shown on a double-page spread. Turning the right page the ancestors of her father begin.

Image 4: The following pages show, beginning with Ines's father, his ancestors with their wives in direct line. The book ends in the 13th century with Knight Vredebern Ketelhot. This image shows on the left page Johann-Friedrich v. Ketelhodt with Luise v. Humbracht and on the right page his parents Christian-Ulrich v. Ketelhodt (1701) and Marie v. Beulwitz.

Image 5: The image shows on the left-hand side Eva v. Barold (1638). The portrait photographs were taken from paintings, drawings, etchings and epitaphs or out of the photo-albums of the v. Stosch and v. Ketelhodt families. The book begins and ends without portraits, only their names and dates of birth and death are printed in letterpress on transparent paper. Forming a further layer, historic dates from the 13th to the 21st century are set in relation to this data. The historic dates from all over the world are vertically printed in letterpress in a smaller font.

1230: Returnees from the 5th Crusade import leprosy into Europe.

1369: Charles V., King of France, prohibits the game of boules. He considers it a danger to state security. His subjects should instead practise fencing, lance-throwing or shooting the cross-bow.

1468: Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of book-printing with movable type and the printing-press, dies.

1570: The Flemish geographer Abraham Ortelius publishes the first modern atlas, the "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" with seventy map pages.

1616: As the first woman Artemisia Gentileschi begins studying at the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno in Florence.

1704: During the War of the Spanish Succession the British conquer Gibraltar after surprising the Spanish during their siesta.

1867: The Russian Tzar Alexander II. sells Alaska to the USA for 7.2 million dollars.

1926: The Turkish government decides to abolish polygamy and the harem system and to adopt Swiss civil law.

1938: The "Chrystal Night" pogroms mark the transition from discrimination of German Jews since 1938 to their systematic persecution, culminating in the Holocaust.

2008: Barack Obama is the first Afro-American elected president of the United States.

It proposes to simultaneously show many conflicting yet correlative texts to allow an audience to comprehend the many in some new way. Reminiscent of DADA activities in Zurich such as "Po_me simultan_" by Tristan Tzara, a connection with the audience would be made with the ultimate human need to make sense of what you are experiencing. Due to this inherent human trait, an onslaught of disparate material coalescing into a written composition places the viewer in an interesting position, to embrace the random or make a choice to find understanding. The interest lies in the choice of the participant, the singular audience. This choice states not only a desire to understand and/or order the random, but in what particular method a mind decides to process this excessive stimulus. This is an exercise in displacing or exchanging materials and information from one context to another, revealing surprising connections between literally divergent positions.

Shifting Narrative is thirteen layers of plexi-glass that contain specific excerpts of text from over forty novels. The piece uses the text both to exhibit visual topography and as a conceptual device concerning literary content and context.

At a meeting with the local elementary school to discuss my own son's placement for Kindergarten, the social worker blanched at the thought of classifying Spencer as 'ED' or 'Emotionally Disturbed', as we had no working diagnosis at that time. "No, no, no. You don't want to do that! That's for the kids who throw chairs at teachers. That's District 75 for sure! Put him as 'LD' ('Language Delay') -- that's where all the Spectrum kids end up."

My son is five years old, and has a neurological disorder called Asperger's, which is on the Autism Spectrum. He inhabits a world in which other people are superfluous at best, terrifying at worst; instead of playing at being a superhero or an astronaut, Spencer fixates on his interests -- these vary, but include ceiling fans, electrical lighting, floorplans, and his deep terror of all things shaped like lightbulbs. He fears seeds and balloons. He could tell you the name of a flower for every letter of the alphabet by the time he was eighteen months old. He draws compulsively for hours, every day. The doctor who did Spencer's first psychological evaluation gave us his assessment and paused, adding, "He's remarkably good-looking."

Spencer is a beautiful, thrilling, and emotionally shattering child to raise. The "puppet theater" and text for Spectrum Is the New Black was imagined as a response to the neurotypical world, which sees only the peculiarities of my child -- and all special needs children -- and limits its attempts at understanding to a basic grasp of the disorder du jour: ASD, ADD, ADHD, PDD-NOS.

This volume is the Deluxe of the edition, covered in full Harmatan goatskin in a dos-a-dos structure. Letterpress printed in an edition of 10 from photopolymer plates on Somerset Book papers. Text and illustrations by the artist. Puppets were letterpress printed on 140lb Arches Watercolor and painted by hand. The rear board has a panel that folds down to create a stage on which to enact the short play contained in the first section of the binding. Set pieces, puppets and other ephemera for the theater are included in the back section of the dos-a-dos, in an envelope. Titling done in gold and carbon tooling with tooled onlay decoration.

Choi! Touchwood! is an illustration book that takes you on a whirlwind journey into the world of Chinese superstition at the heart of Singapore's Chinatown, complete with tips, trivia and a running commentary. Working with two other designers, Liew Jie Ni and Alvin Ng, we spent two years to conceptualize, research, plan and integrate the spirit, sights and sounds of Chinatown alongside informative knowledge to present this piece of work. Choi! Touchwood! takes you through the history of landmarks like Thian Hock Keng Temple, Smith Street, Ang Siang Hill and Sago Lane. It contrasts the phenomenon of a modern society and traditional beliefs and brings out reminiscent feelings for old traditions. It reminds people about their childhood days when traditions, myths and taboos were a big part of their lives. In modern, developed and globalised Singapore, traditions become immaterial, yet it is always valuable to archive it for our younger and future generations.

Book art is a unique form in which the "book form" is indispensable from the theme I wish to communicate. A piece of text or image can undoubtedly exist in another form and continues to tell its story, but as soon as it resides inside a "book", it takes on the qualities of that physical vessel, and the decision of using that vessel automatically becomes part of the message. I often see the visual composition of a book as a graphic designer arranging shapes and colors through the materials. The physical book becomes a canvas that uses its own lines, shapes, forms and colors. I strive for a harmony between perfection and imperfection in my work. Imperfection creates individuality, and it also generates new possibilities and perspectives.

I take pictures of every book that I make. My creative process continues its next phase after I finish with the physical object and sign it. Through the lens, it allows me to see my work in totally different perspectives which transform into unique graphic art.

Hokusai's Yurei (Hokusai's Ghost): "Yurei" is a character in Japanese folklores which is similar to ghosts. Katsushika Hokusai painted a series of well-known ghost stories and characters which I have been recreating through book art to capture their essence through the book form. This sculptural book presents a visual image of his yurei depiction. Utilizing cotton cord to suggest her long hair, I present an interpretation of the story though a book's physical form and structure. It is a part of the "Storybooks" series, an on-going series of works that re-tell well-known stories in various cultures through the structures and forms of books, without using texts or images. Each piece is in either all white, all black or only black and white.