Regular Paper

Friday, June 6, 2014

PSBA 4th Annual Members Exhibition

Opening this week at the Collins Memorial Library at University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, is the annual exhibition of artist's books and book arts created by the members of Puget Sound Book Artists. The exhibit runs from June 5 - July 31, 2014, and there are some wonderful pieces on view, well worth a visit. Here are the two books I have on display:

“Early Lessons” is a re-imagined child’s early reader which tells the story of Tom, Sally, their pets and family on a strange trip through Europe. The pictures and story were created using images and text cut from several early readers, and collaged onto reproductions of photochrom travel postcards from the late 1900’s. The text uses only words and phrases from the early readers, so that a first grader could (but probably shouldn’t!) read the dubious adventures.

“Bright Threads” is a book rescue project -- the original 1897 book of essays for women, had loose, torn covers and disintegrating pages. Part of the original cover has been inset into the cover of a repurposed dictionary; title pages and several text pages have been preserved as an accordion-style, collaged booklet; passages from pages too fragile to handle have been copied onto fabric and sewn into “text-ribbons” decorated with lace, beading and charms, nestled into a hand-carved niche, ready to be handled and read.