Information Bound and Sculpted Artists Books at Tompkins Public Library January 2011 March 2011 Nikki Thompson Featuring the work of Carol Barton, Sarah Bryant, Mary-Ellen Campbell, Margo Klass, Pamela Drix, Helen Frederick, Roni Gross, Pat Hunsinger, Kumi Korf, Joan Lyons, Mikhail Magaril, Russell Maret, Kathy Morris, Penny Nii, Jae Sullivan, Maddy Rosenberg, Nikki Thompson, Eriko Takahashi and Christa Wolf
Curator s Statement Information Bound and Sculpted is a continuation of the exhibit Books to Prints/ Prints to Books featured at the Tompkins County Public Library in 2009. The show highlights artists books from artists working places as far apart as New York and California. It includes books from the collection of Kumi Korf and highlights a wide range of content and structure. With examples from almost traditional letter press printed books with intaglio illustrations, to texts on paper rolls from a found adding machine; from small editions to one of a kind books; and from folded photocopies to three dimensional moveable sculptures, this exhibit is intended to intrigue the viewer to make them stop and ponder what they see. Texts are not always readable unless they are demonstrated by undoing the crocheted bag that contains paper-covered relics, or by unrolling the printed roll of a found adding machine. Small books are hidden in a three-dimensional structure. Cards have to be pulled out of folded pages and text and images have to be selected from disc shaped openings. Subtle abstract visions contrast with imaginary cityscapes pulled out of a small folded ledger. Themes and contents arrive from very personal stories and recreate relationships between man and woman, creatures and men, and make us listen to the menacing voices of seascapes. The worlds in these artists books are for us to re-read, re-structure and re-envision every time we unfold their stories in front of our eyes. Christa Wolf 3
Artists Books Carol Barton Glen Echo, MD Vision Shifts 1998 Offset 9x7/8x3/8" Sarah Bryant Aurora, NY Biography 2010 edition size: 75 letterpress, polymer plates on Zerkall Book paper 8 3/4 x 5 1/2 x" Point of View 2008 letterpress printed from polymer plates and metal type on Arches text and Wyndstone, Vellum papers 7 x 5 1/8 x 5/8" Mary-Ellen Campbell 4
Margo Klass Fairbanks, AK Untitled 1993 paper Xerox 4 1/8x3 5/8x1/8" Pamela Drix Valois, NY Wolf Pack 1/1, 2010 woodcut, intaglio, collagraph, gum transfer, monoprint, binder's,board, bookcloth Helen Frederick Silver Springs, MD The View is Daunting 2003 digital offset 5
Roni Gross New York, NY Coming Clean 2006 letterpress, acrylic, paper 4 1/8x7 1/8x1" Women/Men 1997 letterpress, woodcut, paper cloth 9 1/4x7 1/2x3/4" Pat Hunsinger Ithaca, NY Problem with Numbers 2008 Found Adding Machine injet printed story on sales tape 13x7x6.5 6
Kumi Korf Ithaca, NY Hole in my Heart 2010 intaglio print, letterpress, Japanese paper, foamcore board 12 3/4x12 3/4x5/8" Waves at my Side 2010 intaglio print on Japanese paper, book cloth 5 1/8x5 1/4x3/8" Joan Lyons Rochester, NY Twenty FiveYears Ago digital copy 9 x7 7/8x 1/4" 7
The Diary of a Madman intaglio, letterpress, cloth 10x6 5/8x 1" Mikhail Magaril New York, NY Russell Maret New York, NY Man' Yoshu 1996 letterpress, on abaca paper, gold leaf, cloth, paper, 18 1/4 x 12 1/4 x 3/8 in Kathy Morris Newfield, NY Spinal Diary Back Surgery and Creativity in the Age of the Uninsured 2009 mixed media and digital photography, laid out in Adobe InDesign and published on the internet through Mira Digital Publishing, inc. 8.5 x 11 in 8
Penny Nii San Francisco, CA The Wheel of Life 2002 Digital 5/8" diameter x 1" Jae Sullivan Ithaca, NY Painting in Eighteen Century France 1995 Altered Book 11 3/8x 18x 4 in Dystopia 2007 Woodcut 1 1/2x 9x 1/2 in Maddy Rosenberg New York, NY 9
Nikki Thompson San Francisco, CA Love Poems 2002 3 ink jet, laser prints, on Vellum 3 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 7/8 in Eriko Takahashi Philadelhia, PA Where is my Home 1996 Offset 9 5/8 x 5 5/8 in 10
Christa Wolf Burdett, NY Im Spind 2009 embroidered cloth in box 5 x 5 x 3 in Kinder Verse 2008 paper thread 5 x 4 x 4 in 11
This exhibit is made possible by grant support from the Brooks Family Foundation and the support of the Ink- Shop 12