New works by Artist Members
Rosemary Furtak and Elizabeth Armstrong said of the exhibition: “The diversity and energy of the Center for Book Arts came spilling over to the heartland when more than 650 slides of works by members arrived at the Walker Art Center for judging. Although we did not have the luxury of examining these diverse objects firsthand, there was not mistaking the vitality, creativity, and tremendous variety characterizing the work. The wide-ranging approaches included everything from tritonal fine print to the conceptual. Between these extremes were offset and color xerox books, one-of-a-kind artists’ books, books of handmade paper, and books metamorphosed into sculpture. In attempting to discuss these works we’ve placed them into four general categories-bookbinding, fine printing, sculptural bookworks, and artists’ books.
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The call for entries for ‘Celebrating 15 Years: New Works by Artist Members’ promised to encompass ‘all aspects of the book arts and allied media.’ As evidence by the submission to this exhibition, the boo arts have attracted a wide cross=section of artists with highly divergent attitudes towards the genre. Traditional, limited edition books that combine the refinements of papermakers, hand printers, illustrators, and bookbinders coexist with inexpensive, commercially produced book designed and written by a single artist. Bookworks suffered to the gills with Talmud-like writings, providing glimpses of the artist’s most intimate thoughts, stand in contrast to those whose content is expressed in visual terms and not meant to be read. Many of these works bring together the verbal, tactile, and sculptural – erasing the line between book an object; all have a consciousness of themselves as art.”
Support for the Center for Book Arts’ visual arts programming is provided, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.