The Anthropomorphic Book

The 1994 annual Artist Members Exhibition

Brian Hannon said of the exhibition: “The Center for Book Arts is proud to present the 1994 exhibition of work by the Center’s artist members. ‘The Anthropomorphic Book’ exhibition contains the art of fifty-six artists whose works explore the relationship between the book and the human body, and so somehow refer to our material existence in the use of image, shape, media, or content.

This exhibition reveals a diversity of new artistic approaches to an age-old subject and includes both traditional and contemporary book formats. Some of the artists take a humorous and whimsical attitude towards our physical existence and have crated sculptural books that fold-out, pop-up, or assume a life-sized anatomical map of the body. Others convey a darker tone in books that express experiences related to physical calamity, including investigations into human disease, handicap, mortality, and AIDS. One such work uses actual x-ray films which have been painted on as the pages of the book. The exhibition also contains many works which explore cultural ideas associated with the human form by examining perceptions of body types, historical notions of beauty, and issues concerned with gender and sexuality. In contrast, some books deal with the simple wonder of a body’s interaction with more ordinary activities, like playing with a hula-hoop, digesting a meal, or simply taking a breath. The works in ‘The Anthropomorphic Book’ exhibition confirm that the book is an especially eloquent format for examining this brief alliance between the corporeal and the immaterial.”

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.

Exhibition Checklist:

Nicala Aiello, Panic
Text by Gertrude Stein and Nicala Aiello. Relief printing, rubber stamp, serigraphy, silk threads, fingernails, graffito. 10 pages in two parallel accordion bindings.

Sarah Barnum, Phantom Limb/ The Flying Dream
Watercolor and ink on paper. 8 pages in a buckram binding with leather straps.

Meg Belichick, Sunspots
Ink on tissue with vellum covers.

Douglas Brin, Journal Pages from 1987 and 1993 Diaries
Perfect bound blank book

Crystal Cawley, Untitled Handbook with Prediction
Paper, acrylic, watercolor, and press type. 10 pages in an accordion binding.

Antonella Celada, Hidden Eye
Wood, paper, collage. One page in a sliding wooden frame.

Antonella Celada, Precision Parts
Paper

Carolyn Chadwick, Shelter My Soul I and II
Oasis goatskin, Unryu, binder’s board. Full leather box.

Deborah Phillips Chodoff, Self-image, 1994
Unique sculptural book. Acrylic mirror tiles, wire, acrylic paint.
This tunnel book has irregular openings that allow the viewer to see his or her reflection framed by the metallic painting on the backs of the tiles. Because the tiles have been heated, the images are distorted and the reflection at the end of the tunnel is tiny.

Ted Clausen, The Breath Box
Wood, glass, cloth

Ted Clausen, The Glove Box
Plexi-glass, gloves, text

Ed Colker, Aesthetique du Rale
Text by Michael Anania. Offset lithography, letterpress. 17 pages bound in a portfolio.

Laura Davidson, The Body Temple
Wood, board, lantern slide, gear, linoleum prints, laser prints, transfers. 6 pages fold out to become a temple, bound with brass hinges.

Tennessee Rice Dixon, Diggings
Photocopy, paint, collage, wax

Melissa Ehrenreich, Brink
Paper, ribbon, blackberry juice, ink, cloth, collage.

Melissa Ehrenreich, Spinning Around My Waist
Monoprints and Xeroxed leaves. 9 pages in an accordion binding.

Laura Ferguson, My Back—Part of My Body Yet Hidden From Myself
Ink, vellum, mixed media with X-rays and silk. 19 pages plus portfolio.

Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, Book of Hair and Lips, Aging and Eternal
Binder’s Board, paper, copier imagery.

Gina Genis, Map of the Interior/Gold Leaf Fingerprints
Ink, gold leaf on bark paper. 3 individual pages wit their own portfolios housed in a case.

Amy Goldin, Making Babies
Paper and plastic.

Joan Iversen Goswell, Hands
Xerography, string, leather gloves

William Harroff, Safe Sex
Snow globe bookwork

Gloria Helfgott, Never Mind
Mixed media: clay, gesso, photocopies.

Mary Hood, Can You Feel Me?
Aluminum, wire, dry point. 5 pages sewn with steel wire.

Sandra Jackman, How Two Multiply
Wood, paper, ink, collage, oil paint, enamel, altered photographs.

Rochelle Rubinstein Kaplan, My Body Book
Hand-sewn leather cover, heat transfers on leather and paper.

Karen Kunc, Mexican Gothic
Text by Vinnie-Marie D’Ambrosio. Letterpress, woodcut on paper, paper slipcase.

John Laudenslager, Praedella
Pastel, graphite, collage, cloth tape, marbleized paper, wax, mineral pigment.

Birgitta Lund, Memory of a Reading
Manipulated photographic prints.

Birgitta Lund, Untitled
Waxed, painted woodblock, black velvet, photocopies

Su Lund, Star Nebula: (Marilyn)(I)
Wood, metal, brass, photos, pigments, stones, wire, glitter and found objects

Jim Machacek, Skin Flick
Collage of Japanese paper, magazine clippings, lithograph. 4 pages in fabric checkbook style folds.

Louise McCagg, Manhattan 05.12.91
Text by Petri Gyorgy and art by Louise McCagg. Cast head cover, letterpress printed text.

Ruth McGurk, Strip Map
Colored pencil, letterpress.

Emily McVarish, Matter and Memory
Text by Henri Bergson. Letterpress on board.

David Moyer, A Phrenologie
Letterpress, wood engravings. 15 pages in a folio.

Denise Mullen, Manos de Piedra
Goat with calf inlays, kallitype photographs, acrylic and gouache. 32 pages with embossed leather covers.

Susan Newmark, Inner Eye
Plastic fabric, paper, paint, sequins, ribbon, stone.

Beverly Nichols, The Dancing Serpent
Text by Charles Baudelaire. Watercolor, covered with linen.

Sarah Peter, Mouth
Collage

Jo Anna Poehlmann, Table of Contents with Appendix
Canon laser color copies, Xerox, wood, acrylic, glue, collage

Lois Polansky, Anatomical Digressions
Handmade paper, fiber, encaustic. Folding screen book with 10 leaves.

Sonya Rapoport, The Animated Soul
Text by artist with poetic excerpts from Normandi Ellis. Canon color copy, laser print, papyrus, Macintosh diskette.

Susan Rotolo, Portraits
Watercolor, silverpoint, pen & ink, linen, muslin, gauze, board. Adjustable supported concertina binding.

Mary Ann Sampson, Prayer Book and Singer
Wood, paper, string, plastic, metal, acrylic paint, pencil

Diane Samuels, Golems of Moraveny
Printed on Ikonofix (recycled).

Rhea Sanders, The Ear Book
Watercolor en grisaille on paper mounted on linen

Claire Jeanine Satin, Black Screen Flip Book I
Black aluminum screen, steel wire, beads, metallic ink, plastics. 8 pages bound with wire.

Miriam Schaer, The Things We Do For Love
Corset, acrylic, blueprint, silk, pins. 80 pages sewn on tapes.

Carol Schwartzott, Ode/Odalisque
Paper, linocut, collage, calligraphy. 5 double pages in an accordion binding.

Joyce Cutler Shaw, Book of Skulls
Xeroxes from drawings on vellum. 22 fanfold pages.

Robbin Ami Silverberg, Manhattan 05.12.91
Text by Petri Gyorgy and art by Louise McCagg. Cast head cover, letterpress printed text.

Edyth Skinner, Vitalogy: A Transparent Book
Text by G. Wood and E.H. Ruddock. Transparent film, screen print, and computer print.

Pamela Spitzmueller, Homage To Walt Whitman
Text by Walt Whitman. Museum board, various charcoal papers, acrylics, flax hinges.

Pamela Spitzmueller, Skin Samples
Coin folder, photographs, pencil. 3 pages of hinged boards.

Mina Takahashi, An Index
Van dyke and gum bichromate photos, rubbings. 3-hole Japanese binding.

Larry Thomas, Partial Recall
Photo copy transfer, collage.

Mary Ting, Trust Me
Various paper, watercolors, polyvinyl.

Boris Torres, Portraits
Watercolor, silverpoint, pen & ink, linen, muslin, gauze, board. Adjustable supported concertina binding.

Karen Trask, The Distance Between Two Halves
Lithography on handmade cast paper.

Dana Velan, The Heavenly Body
Copper covers, X-ray sheets. 13 pages tied with leather string.

Victoria Von Koeppen, Breast Book
Satin, xeroxes, and photographs.

Faith Dorian Wright, Bulls, Peacocks and Men
Paint and collage on 3 wooden panels.

Exhibition Views

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