I am trained as an architect and began printmaking about ten years ago. I work with multiple square plates, which allows me to rotate and combine them in a variety of ways thereby making individual monoprints that explore visual space and color. The resulting prints are fantastic alternatives to buildings I have designed or imagined. With ‘Open Window’ I incorporated my prints into a ‘flag book’, which added actual space to the images allowing the viewer’s eye to weave its way through the layers in the piece.

Photos by Dan Anderson

A lotus fold artist book featuring an original poem, “Time” comments on the expectations one may have on the other and the possible negative affects this can cause. The text paper is of Arches Text Wove which has been painted using the paste paper technique taught by Suzanne Moore. The illustrations have been created using Lego bricks in a relief printing method. The original poem has been printed in letterpress using 18pt Goudy metal type. The boards are covered in purple Harmattan goat leather and decorated in gold foil tooling. The eye hooks and metal ball and chain act as the closure for the book, but when strung behind the front cover when opened is meant to be used as a hanging “wire,” allowing the owner of the piece to treat it either as a book to be kept on the shelf or hung on the wall as a traditional piece of 2D art.

Shmita is the year of rest in the seven-year agricultural cycle of Jewish life. It is a time for the land to recover. The word Shmita is spelled from right to left in the large letters while the smaller words represent the spiritual aspects of this observance. Shechina means the feminine, nurturing attribute of God, Moed means holiday both for the land and the people, Yachad means together as in our relationship with God, Tov means good as in borrowing the land benefits humans. Adonai means God, symbolically, Heh (the large letter) signifies Creation. As the feminine attribute of God began this cycle, the masculine name of God ends this cycle. The Israeli landscape shifts from the fertile agricultural north of Israel to the desert region of the Negev in the south. It starts in spring with the lush fruitful landscape, slowly moving into fall and winter rains, only to begin the cycle with spring again. The techniques I used include letterpress, mokuhanga and standard woodblock print.

Photos by Jack Craig

Reading a poetic passage in Zechariah began my research into the significance of boulders, rocks, stones and pebbles in Judaism. Stones symbolize holiness and sanctify place, they commemorate relationships and act as talisman, cairns, weapons and birthing aids. This book celebrates all stones through a narrative arc from the immeasurably large Rock of Israel (God), the Holiest Stone, to the smallest pebble we leave on the gravestone to commemorate the dead.

The eighteen passages I have chosen from various Judaic sources illustrate a spectrum of history and myth. In Judaic numerology, eighteen stands for chai or life. My intent is to symbolize the relevance of stones in our modern world as a living tie that still binds us to our ancient tradition.

Hinc Ad Horam, a book of metamorphoses, brings the world of plants and the world of humans together and speaks of the fleeting beauty of life.
I used inks and dyes I made of plants in my native Brittany. The paper is made in Korea by master Samsik Kim from the bark of mulberry trees. I wrote Ovid’s stories of metamorphoses with yellow ink on very fine hanji, then made paper thread from it (shifu) and wove it into small squares using a tiny loom. I transformed some dyed hanji into flower tessellations. All are nested in the Zhen Xian Bao structure. Pieces of eco-dyed silk are backed with hanji and form the larger box as well as the folded structure.
Thanassis Hatzopoulos’ poem Repetition is a Rule of Life narrates the cyclical transformations of life and is itself repeated through its French and English translations. It becomes an echo to the stories of Ovid, and inspired the title, Hinc Ad Horam, celebrating our world in which plants and humans co-exist and correspond.

*Invitational

The artist book, (Dis)location, is a visual narrative communicating the artist’s emotional response to the COVID-19 pandemic through abstract shape and color. In the first few pages of the accordion-style book, geometric shapes in cool blues and greens are aligned and balanced on the page in a lyrical arrangement. As the storyline continues, a few fold-out pages reveal abstracted newspaper columns, and bright, jutting graphics of hot colors. The horizon line then begins to skitter and jump; and imagery becomes increasingly angled, fragmented, and spinning. The back of the book includes a visual interpretation of the news media and the now-familiar barrage of graphics of increasing virus, and infection. Rather than a chronicle of pandemic headlines, data, and dates, (Dis)location employs the universality of color and composition to evoke a world inexorably changed by isolation, sickness and loss.

Imagery was inspired by collages created by the artist during isolation in 2020 and 2021. News graphics were based on images published by Johns Hopkins magazine and The New York Times. (Dis)location was printed on the letterpress with linoleum blocks and polymer plates, with additional inkjet-printed collage elements.

imagined world. I am fascinated by statuary in the private and public space. These monuments have been erected to embody the mythos, ideals, and spiritual aspirations of the community. They are tributes to the sacrifice of local heroes, ancient gods, or religious icons and form the basis of my imagery. I digitally remove the statues from their stark plinths and merge them with an envisioned landscape, ensconced in blankets of flowers from manicured formal gardens, farmlands, or watery hideaways. From these composited images, I print them in the 19th century cyanotype process, which I enhance by drawing and coloring with pastels. In the origami book form, the mystery of the image is revealed as it unfolds.

Endure was created as a reaction to recent developments and attacks on women’s rights and human rights. At times it seems that the world is constantly fighting for every inch they make towards progress before being shoved back another foot. Endure was created from a place of feeling overwhelmed and consumed by the seeming lack of empathy around us. Born from one comforting idea, Endure embodies the strength of people and their communities to continue. To continue to fight, to exist, to love, to be. Inspired by cyclic themes both in life and in mythos Endure embodies the idea of persistence, that no matter the struggles we face ahead of us we will always endure, be it ourselves or our future generations ahead of us, we will move forward.

OLD is a collaborative project by Jan Dove and Lucia Harrison.  They created this volvelle and essay to spark conversations about the stories our culture tells itself about aging. The book asks what it means to be women artists growing older with humor, grace and a circular vision of time.

This book is created from journal, photos and drawings I kept during a yearlong roadtrip around the U. S. in 1990-91. This segment takes place in the winter cold of southwest Texas where I met Santa Claus who gave me corn to feed the deer and directed me to visit Seminole Canyon and stay for at least 2 days.

Woodswoman is a mythologized description of the earth. I created her for the woods of the Adirondack at Blue Mountain Center. I replaced Christian symbols that were part of the clothing of original mother object with Logos of organizations that fight for the rights of our planet.

“Dream Magic” explores how, in dreams, the dreamer sheds their daytime persona to enter a place of myth, magic & metaphor where the impossible is possible. In the book I play with placement of text and image to give the illusion of movement and to emphasize how dream space, time & logic follow different rules from a person’s daytime experiences.
Like a set of small jewels, the book unfolds from its closed state into four staggered shadowboxes that contain scenes of a dreamer immersed in dream images. The base of the book’s support structure doubles as a small accordion book which, by pulling the tab, unspools onto another dreamscape with three poems that speak to iconic dream imagery.

Photos by Kat Gower

Walking (Ink) Meditation, Part XVI: Portal is an accordion book consisting of a set of 4 etchings joined horizontally, with hand-coloring. The images invoke Neolithic sacred sites, including the communal tombs at Gavrinis and Avebury that combine standing stones with other structures, some stones incised with enigmatic lines and shapes, the purpose of which we can only speculate about, but seem to relate to the worship of the sun. At Avebury, the West Kennett Long Barrow is made up of multiple chambers and an entry court formed by massive stones and covered with a raised mound. The entrance is situated so that only at the Winter Solstice a shaft of sunlight reaches the farthest chamber, marking the turning of the year. The book invokes that moment of dawn shining through the forest into the tomb, but also ends with a trailing drawn line, signifying that we, so far removed in time, can never really know what purpose the structures served and what ceremonies occurred there.

Ventanas de la Habana is a collaboration between Carlos “Tato” Ayress Moreno and faculty and students from The University of Alabama MFA Book Arts Program in School of Library and information Studies within the College of Communication and Information Sciences. Artwork was conceived and carved in linoleum by Tato Ayress. The book structure was designed by Anna Embree, Sarah Bryant, and Kyle Holland, and letterpress-printed on French Paper in Tuscaloosa with assistance from MFA students Kasey Gabriel, Christina Lilly, Sarah Scarr, and Jillian Sico. Thanks to Juan Lopez-Bautista, who graciously translated this colophon into Spanish.

Photos by Sarah Bryant

Daedalus designed wings to escape from the labyrinth of Crete with his son Icarus. But his imprudence caused him to fall into the sea.

Case Study on Water, a sculptural artists’ book comprised of “collected” items, observes my relationship with water. Having a mother who has frequently visited fortunetellers, I was always told that I lack water in my energy and that’s why sometimes things are not working out in my life. I always thought that was a ridiculous idea but at a certain point I started to wonder, “is it?”

“As bizzare as it sounds, maybe this year has been good to me because I moved from an apartment in the middle of a city to another apartment in the middle of another city, but with a tiny view of Lake Michigan. maybe, that’s why I ordered one coffee machine but received two, ran into the manager of the job I wanted, and met someone new who I feel strongly connected to in three years. In this study, I will examine the potentially unforseen force of this ordinary matter and evaluate its control over my life (and maybe even that of others).”, excerpt from Case Study on Water

Photos by Angelica Ong

Mystic Tea is an artist’s book where I set out to create a narrative that was fully supported by both the text and imagery. The “Magic“ of Mystic Tea is that it is an enchanted elixir to escape the sorrow and despair of the Covid pandemic, the War in Ukraine, and the looming disaster of climate change. Its contents provide a magical escape which transcends the “Here and Now’’ initiating a journey of unexpected events and characters which is both amusing and soothing. Although it displays well as an open Concertina Book it also works well as a book in hand that tells a story as the reader turns the pages from beginning to end.

Owed to The Mountain is a sculptural artist book that unfolds to reveal a paper replica of Mt. Hood. Each directional mountain view is illustrated in a different printmaking technique and storytelling by Elders from the Confederated Tribes at Warm Springs grows the relationship. Beneath the mountain rests a book that weaves multiple Native voices that share the value of reciprocity and cooperation. Interspersed by story are etchings of animals in various ecosystems documenting the changing seasons. Intended outcomes are to cultivate knowing a place deeply; share indigenous wisdom; build community; and turn our love for the mountain into action where we demand a new management plan from the Mt Hood National Forest Service that prioritizes climate resilience and puts an end to industrial timber production. As Robin Kimmerer states – “Stories are both history and prophecy – time is circular – stories are among our most potent tools for restoring the land and our relationship to her.”

Photos by Aaron Wessling

*Invitational

Inspired by the rise in ultra-nationalism and worldwide threat to democratic ideas and principles, Your Leader Could be a Tyrant, How to Tell incorporates silhouetted images of each tyrant with hand-stamped text about their peculiar habits, statistical information about their rule, and accompanying texts discussing common traits of dictators. Originally conceived as a companion to Your Co-Worker Could Be A Space Alien from 1985, this book mixes humor and horror to underscore our contemporary reality.

KaKeArt is the collaborative team of Ann Kalmbach and Tatana Kellner. KaKeArt produces ironic, politically charged works including postcards, artists’ books and public interventions. They have worked together since 1983 and published 20 artists’ books, numerous installations, and public interventions.

They have been awarded residencies at the Visual Studies Workshop, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross Foundation, Visual Studies Workshop, Bogliasco Foundation, The Hessische Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany, University of Southern Maine, and The Sirius Arts Center in Ireland, among others. Additionally, they are the recipients of the New York Foundation for the Arts grants and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant. They have served as jurors and panelists for a variety of national and local arts organizations. 

KaKeArt are co-founders of Women’s Studio Workshop (with 2 others). They exhibit regularly around the country and abroad.