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Posts Tagged ‘book arts’

  1. Book Artist of the Month: Laura Davidson

    April 8, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    9citiescover-lauradavidson

    In 2009, Laura Davidson took inspiration from the cities that she visited and created 9 Cities, One Artist in a small edition of 7. Each hand colored dry point print depicts a monument from each respective city and includes a handwritten caption naming the buildings. The beautiful, muted color palette is a lovely contrast against the vibrant 22 c. gold details. There are 10 prints in total.

    The book is on a smaller, more intimate scale measuring 2″ high by 4½” long. 

    A few words from Laura regarding her work:
    I love to travel and have been so inspired by it. I think it is good to get out of the studio and look at what is out there and what can inspire.

    9cities-lauradavidson 9citieslondon-lauradavidson 9citiesparis-lauradavidson 9citiesrome-lauradavidson

  2. April // Book Artist of the Month: Laura Davidson

    April 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    fortpointtunnelbook-lauradavidson

    Fort Point-Boston is part of an ongoing series of tunnel books from artist Laura Davidson completed in 2011. The point of view shows the harbor walk from the Gillette building to the Boston Harbor, passing by bridges and buildings along the Fort Point Channel. Each copy is numbered and signed. Laura’s tunnel books are available through her website or at the Made in Fort Point store.

    I’ve been working in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston for almost a year now and I’ve already seen changes in the landscape around me. Laura has been in Fort Point for 30 years. After realizing that we are practically neighbors, Laura so graciously invited me to visit her studio. Laura pulled piece after piece out of her display cabinet, allowing me to handle each one. We discussed details of her work from the handmade hinges to the paper mosaics to the various nibs Laura uses to create her drawings. After surveying Laura’s work one can clearly see how her environment both in and out of the studio acts as inspiration. Laura has created several works showcasing her point of view of a neighborhood to which she calls home.

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    Fort Point Flora and Fauna is an offset printed accordion book from 2003. One side showcases full color drawings of the various animal and plant-life in the Fort Point area that Laura has observed. The reverse side is sepia toned text giving explanation to the images. I first saw this lovely little book at the FPAC Gallery and it opened my eyes to the idea of nature thriving in the urban environment of Fort Point. Now as I walk around the neighborhood I find myself being greeted by signs of life. Most recently a wild turkey, but I image that was quite unusual.

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    In 2006, Laura created Fort Point Illuminated, a miniature book filled with images of her neighborhood. Each image is painted with ink and wash and illuminated with gold leaf. The covers are sterling silver with copper and brass elements and is bound with a sterling silver necklace chain. This book is in the Collection of the Boston Athenaeum.

    It was a real treat to meet Laura and get a glimpse of her studio life. An organized and inspirational workshop is conducive to creating successful pieces of art. On one side of Laura’s studio is a completely magnetized wall, where Laura displays old tintype portraits, pieces of ephemera, fragments of her current work and photographs of her family. A magnetized wall is quite appealing and something I may implement in my studio. 

    I want to thank Laura again for inviting me into her studio and sharing stories of her work and life with me.

    Read the interview after the jump and come back each Monday in the month of April for more of Laura’s work.

    read more >

  3. Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 25, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Throughout the month I’ve featured the book art work of Sarah McDermott, but she also works as a talented printer. This past winter, Sarah created these screenprints that will hopefully be part of a larger series. Sarah has been able to improve her method of registration using the pin and tab system, which she learned from Dennis O’Neil’s experimental screenprint class at Corcoran. 

    I really love these prints and I’m so glad Sarah shared them with me. I do hope they become part of a larger series because I’m curious to see where these limbs (or perhaps other body parts) appear next. 

    You can see more of her print work here.

    untitled 1 PA

  4. Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 11, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    dodgecountrysummers2-sarahmcdermott

    Memories can be tricky. When recalling moments from our childhood, we can so easily and without realizing it, elaborate on the reality. In Dodge County Summers, Sarah McDermott constructs a narrative from the summers spent on her family’s farm in Wisconsin and now as an adult realizes their falsehoods. 

    Dodge County Summers is bound as a quarter cloth binding on an intimate scale of 5¼ x 5¼” containing fold-out sections, which allow for movement in two directions. The interior pages were handmade using cotton rag, abaca, mystery pulp balls and hemp and letterpress printed on a Vandercook 4 with the use of linoleum reductions and photopolymer printed plates for the text and drawings.

    This artist book was created in 2009 in an edition of 30 and can be purchased through Vamp & Tramp, Booksellers.

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  5. Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 4, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    birkensnake1-sarahmcdermott

    Sarah McDermott works in collaboration with friends Joanna Ruocco and Brian Conn to design and screenprint covers for their experimental fiction journal Birkensnake. Each issue is “irregularly published and imperfectly bound” in editions of about 300. 

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    left: Issue no. 2 | right: Issue no. 3

    Birkensnake 2 has a 3-color screenprint design on flocked paper with the center scorched with a blowtorch and bound in a long stitch structure. Birkensnake 3 has a 3-color design screenprinted on recycled chipboard boxes and bound with a wraparound cover. 

    Unfortunately, all of the print issues are sold out, but Birkensnake can be read digitally through their website. The next issue is set to publish this summer, edited by seven pairs of strangers, that is until they signed on to complete Birkensnake 6.

  6. March // Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 2, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    problemsofscale1-sarahmcdermottIn 2011, Sarah McDermott of Kidney Press created Problems of Scale; an artist book exploring the syntax of a short prose poem by Joanna Ruocco. Sarah laid out all of the phrases and examined the relationships between each phrase and then used that as the framework for the book layout. An overarching relationship between two people is represented on the vellum overlays, which are tipped in to a modified hardcover long-stitch binding. The text was letterpress printed with metal type on a combination of Hahnemuhle Bugra, Chartham vellum and handmade abaca paper. In addition polymer plates for letterpress printing were made by hand with Rubylith cutouts and scratched negatives. The book is housed in a slipcase.

    problemsofscale4-sarahmcdermott problemsofscale2-sarahmcdermott problemsofscale3-sarahmcdermott

    On a visit to the New York Center for Book Arts, I saw Sarah’s work for the first time. I thought Problems of Scale was beautifully crafted as both an art object and a book structure. I’m really excited about this interview, her determination for making art and outlook on teaching are quite inspiring. Check back each Monday for posts featuring more artist books, as well as Sarah’s print work. 

    You received your MFA in Book Arts at the University of Alabama in 2010. Can you talk about your training in the book arts at UA and how you decided to get into book arts and printmaking?
    I’ve taken a somewhat indirect path toward this field. I have always liked making things, but I didn’t take art in middle/high school because I clashed with the art teacher’s conservative approach. In my twenties I started to get more into my own drawing practice and learned how to screenprint, inspired by the amazing art happening in Providence, RI where I was living. At the time I was working doing light construction/carpentry with two contractor friends. I then moved to Uruguay for a year and ended up hanging out at several vibrant collective printshops. I got inspired to learn printing and when I came back to the U.S. and moved to N.Y.C. I started to do work-study at the Center for Book Arts. All of the letterpress classes were full so I took bookbinding classes and really liked them, finding it kind of like carpentry but on a more appropriate scale for my body (smallish). After a year and a half I decided to go to the University of Alabama for further study. I chose Alabama because it had the strongest craft orientation of the M.F.A. programs and at the time I thought I was more interested in trade school than art school. Alabama also had the best funding; I knew I was looking at years of underpaid labor when I finished school (which has proved true) so I wanted to avoid debt if possible. At Alabama I just worked all the time, and ended up building my artistic confidence in addition to developing solid craft skills. Book arts still seemed somewhat random to me at the time, I’m not one of those people that has made zines since I was a child, but I kept being drawn to it, and more and more these days it seems like this field encompasses pretty much everything I am interested in. 

    Since graduation you have participated in residencies at the New York Center for Book Arts and at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. How have these experiences influenced your current work and shaped your involvement in book arts?
    It felt essential to me to set up a structure for myself to continue working immediately out of graduate school. I felt happy with my work in my last year at Alabama and wanted to continue the momentum. I also thought that if I didn’t reinforce the skills that I had learned that I might forget them. I was therefore lucky to get the scholarship at the Center for Book Arts, because it provided the perfect place to do that. I systematically went through and re-did several things that I had learned in grad school, in an attempt to make them more of my own, instead of having to follow instructions or handouts. I also set up projects for myself that required recombining skills, and forcing myself to think creatively instead of, again, just following directions. As I did this I could bounce ideas off the community of binders and printers at the CBA. I also took a lot of classes, which were sometimes a review, but good for learning from different people and remembering certain things. So overall it was great.

    At Pyramid, I enjoyed being able to make paper and do printmaking simultaneously, which isn’t a combination that is easy to find. I was interested in the balance that Pyramid negotiates between being a community center and being an arts residency program. I also really enjoyed the personalities and the camaraderie at Pyramid which led me toward moving to the DC area. 

    When describing your work you’ve mentioned the use of raw materials: “fiber becomes paper, receives print, becomes book.” Once a concept has hatched, what is your process in transferring that idea into the book form? Is your workspace in a shared studio?
    Well, it’s been somewhat different for every book and I feel like it’s shifting with the project I am currently working on. My general process has often tended to be: get in over my head, and then catch up and learn what I need to in order to make the project happen. While some of this impulse is natural and exciting and good, I also think it comes from the pressure of being relatively new in the field and feeling like there is so much to learn. I am getting to a place where I feel like I can work less from this position of scarcity/catch-up, and instead from a stronger, more rooted impulse, where I am more comfortable in my role as an artist and craftsperson. This is a lifetime task, probably.

    I also use collaboration as a framework for projects. I frequently work with a writer, Joanna Ruocco, and with a magazine Birkensnake (edited by the same Joanna and Brian Conn). Being accountable to other people is incredibly helpful for getting things done. 

    Generally I have used the paper-making process as kind of a conceptual warm up. After coming up with some general ideas, I continue thinking about content while I am making the materials for the book, so the two grow side by side.

    I used InDesign for Compendium of Domestic Incidents, mostly so I would learn InDesign. I became worried though by how quickly it started to feel necessary (how easily I forgot how to organize material without computers) and I started to think about how expensive InDesign was and how I couldn’t find a good freeware option, so I decided to do my next project (Problems of Scale) without the use of the computer. 

    The book project I’m working on now, I want to have a bit more of a commercial/industrial feel so I am mostly using machine-made paper and am planning on going back to the computer some, especially now that I have access via the school where I teach. 

    I have no workspace of my own at the moment. It can be difficult to share equipment and create dedicated work time amidst socializing, but it’s also inspiring to be around other people making things. I rotate between working at Pyramid Atlantic and in the Corcoran letterpress and printmaking studios.  

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    You work under the moniker Kidney Press. Is there a story behind the name?
    The Kidney Press moniker is pretty random. I have always admired the kidney, since reading about its functioning in AP Biology in high school. Since my work deals a lot with body stuff, fetishizing an organ seemed appropriate. I also liked that “kidney press” sounded kind of like a torture device, rather than some of the statelier press names I encounter. 

    You teach workshops in both the book arts and printmaking at various venues including the Corcoran College of Art and Design and the New York Center for Book Arts. What types of workshops do you teach and who are your typical students? What aspects of teaching do you enjoy the most?
    At CBA and at Pyramid Atlantic I’m teaching a class on alternative ways of making polymer plates in the coming months. I have also taught bookbinding at the CBA. At Pyramid in early summer I am teaching a class I am really excited about called The Intermediate Object combining screenprint with simple book structures. All of these workshops are for adults who run the gamut in terms of their motivation for taking the class- some are serious students of book arts who are looking to go further, some are folks who want to try something new. At the Corcoran, last semester I facilitated a large collaborative project with the second year Masters’ students in the Art and the Book program, which was challenging and fun. I also teach youth workshops via Pyramid Atlantic which engages different skills. I haven’t really specialized, which means I teach many different things and sometimes my brain feels like it is going to explode with all the prep work I have to do. But I also like it, because I like variety and I get to learn new things and push myself that way. At the moment I need to figure out how to make more time for my own work (which seems like a common teaching artist conundrum), but in general I love teaching- it keeps me ethically engaged and makes my own work better. 

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  7. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 18, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    Meander and Convergence

    In 2007, Dianna Frid created Meander and Convergence using canvas and silk with hints of thread and foil. Imagery of rivers and staircases recur throughout Dianna’s work as symbols of time, cycles and finitude. 

    Meander and Convergence Meander and Convergence Meander and Convergence

    Below you can see the similarities between Meander and Convergence and The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice. Both artist books were constructed as an accordion structure and therefore the entire content can easily be seen at once. Each book also includes an embroidered image of a spiral staircase.

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    top: Meander and Convergence
    bottom: The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice

    staircase-diannafrid

    left: Meander and Convergence
    right: The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice

    The staircase as a symbol has also appeared in Dianna’s sculptural and installation work.

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    Installation view and detail of Time and Distance

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    Bent

  8. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 11, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    floydcollins_diannafrid

    Dianna Frid found inspiration in the tragic story of celebrated cave explorer Floyd Collins and in 1998 she constructed this memorializing embroidered cloth book. Using a heat transfer technique, Dianna also included a found image of Floyd Collins. This is one of Dianna’s first fabric books to use found imagery becoming a pivotal point in her approach to narration. 

    I asked Dianna to include a few words in regards to the concept behind Floyd Collins, Cave Explorer.
    It is, in essence, a narrative book that shows you, not only tells you, what happened to this minor historical figure from Kentucky in the 1920’s. As such, it is an exploration of the potential of the form to use a sequential progression of layers to achieve narrative coherence that echo the story. This happens again in Leak, for example, and in Reversal, although both of those books are comprised by words only. In Floyd Collins… each layer is visible at once when you first open the book because there is a large hole on each page. The hole gets smaller as the pages progress, and they eventually bury Floyd Collins (his photograph).

    The story of Floyd Collins is compelling on many fronts, not only because of the ironic tragedy it exemplifies. In the history of American journalism, he became the first ordinary person who rose to celebrity due to a tragedy: he got stuck and died while he was trying to explore an alternative entrance to the larger network of caves that comprise Mammoth Cave. Floyd Collins was an adventurer-explorer, and he was looking for “more.” I found out about his story—or, more aptly his story found me—while I was perusing a textbook on Physical Geography. I was struck that a scientific book with the mission of teaching us about the earth’s layers, volcanoes, and rock formations included this brief vignette of an unknown, illiterate farmer. I was assailed by the interlude. The stitched words of the artist’s book are sourced from the textbook, and I, of course, give attribution to the authors of the textbook in the colophon. 

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  9. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 4, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    The artist book Just Wait and See was my first exposure to Dianna Frid’s work, which is housed in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The book is constructed with cloth and thread with images applied through heat transfer. The book was always a favorite of mine to view each time I visited the JFABC. Although I anticipated the outcome of the gun shooter, it never halted my interaction with the book.

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  10. Coming Soon: Hannah Brown // Dianna Frid

    January 1, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

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    Starting in February I’ll continue featuring bookbinders in my Bookbinder of the Month column, starting with the incredibly talented Hannah Brown, who masterfully adds embroidery work into her fine bindings. Another spectrum of binding I want to focus on are artist books, beginning with the ingenious work of Dianna Frid, whose soft fabric books whimsically explore philosophical themes concerning the nature of reality. 

    Every month dive further into the binding community with another artist and craftsman. Don’t miss a post, it may inspire something in you!

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  • My name is Erin Fletcher, owner and bookbinder of Herringbone Bindery in Boston. Flash of the Hand is a space where I share my process and inspirations.
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