Artists' Books in the Exhibit
Wild Girls Redux: An Operator’s Manual (2009) by Ellen Knudson
This book contains objects associated with femininity such as pink heart paper dollies, white doily placemats, and green office ledger papers. The satirical text on how to "operate" women is adapted from the Missouri Department of Revenue Motorcycle Operator Manual.
Tie One On!: A Miniature History of the Apron (2010) by Maryann J. Riker
A double-sided accordion with four pop-ups. The book is bound in color copies of vintage papers with page edges that resemble lace. Tie One On! traces the history of the apron from a solely functional clothing item to a fashion piece.
Postage Due: Forever Stamps (2009) by C. David Thomas
A portfolio of 12 folded leaves in a handmade black linen box. Each leaf contains stamps that are not official but represent parts of history that are glossed over, such as the United States’ use of Agent Orange and the bombing of Hanoi, Vietnam in 1972.
Copy 3/25
Diametric is a dos-a-dos formatted book letterpress printed on Somerset paper. The two sides with black or white paper utilize the same words. Single words are inked on with the opposing word debossed in the background of the page spread, such as “Away/Home.”
Copy 7/7
The Water Department (2008) by Gail Watson
The Water Department contains nineteen personal memories that involve tears, both happy and sad. Seventeen containers have handbound accordion-style short stories, and three display text on a single circle. The photographs were printed on an inkjet printer with words printed on an 1887 Pearl Platen Press from polymer plates.
Centering, Inward; Outward, Return (2014) by Regula Russelle
A two-part story using near-identical labyrinths made from the same mold and white cotton pulp. Simple words are embedded to represent the pulse of action. Centering, Inward focuses on dense language culminating in the center, whereas Outward, Return culminates on the outer rim with “doing and making.”
Reading Dick and Jane with Me (1989) by Clarissa Sligh
This book is bound as a pamphlet and printed using lithography. The book dissects the Dick and Jane textbooks that were popular in the 1940s and 50s. Those textbooks made white upper-middle-class suburbanites seem like the “typical” American family. In response, Sligh inserts pictures of children from her old neighborhood.
Spiral notebook of pictures. Page is a transgender man and has never seen himself in male role models like his father. To remedy this, Page recreated photos of his father around the same age. He made this book to increase trans representation in Book Arts and to make an Heirloom for his children.
Copy 12/30
Glass House (2009) by Ann Lovett
The book is bound in a drum leaf style with a breakaway spine. Lovett wrote a poem about Ann Lovett, a 15-year-old who shares her name from Ireland. In 1984, Ann died after giving birth to a stillborn in a Grotto of the Virgin Mary. The artist Lovett describes the poem as exploring “sensuality and the failures of Catholicism in her [Ann’s] life.”
Ghost Maps (2015) by Harriet Bart
Bart made this book during her residency at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts in Studio VAS. Bart uses pictures and words to trace the presence and absence of 46 artists who were in the studio between 2004-2010.
Copy 8/25
Electric Tulips 5.1 (2015) by Philip Gallo
There are two texts within this book. The poem is letterpress printed in seven colors. The essay, “Future Preterite” uses digital type. The book serves as a dialogue between the poet and the literary critic essayist (both are Gallo). It is a pastiche of literary and typographic elements.
Copy 29/45
Old Swayback (2006) by Jim Heynen
Heynen wrote a fictitious poem about an old mare and an older barn. In the poem, the adults fail to see the value in the barn and want to destroy it, while the boys wish to save it. The book is constructed with handmade paper, handset letters, and a wood engraving from finished maple half-rounds.
Copy 113/128
My Heart’s Page (2013) by Organik
This book examines the multiple instances throughout history when there have been attempts to wipe out knowledge to maintain power. The text is handwritten with stamps and handbound using a Coptic stitch. Research was done using the book A Universal History of the Destruction of Books by Fernando Báez.
Chronicles of a Coleopterist’s Strikingly Curious Swarm (2018) by Gabrielle Cooksey
This book contains 12 stories about beetles, of which Cooksey wrote 7. The book was made to withstand being used as a field guide but also have exquisite craftsmanship. The beetles are made using photopolymer plates, painted with alcohol ink on aluminum, and stylized with a ballpoint pen.
Copy 17/26
Interior Landscape (2011) by Lyall Forsyth Harris
A double-sided accordion structure with mixed media linoleum cut images and polymer plate printed text. Interior Landscape responds to The Journals of Sylvia Plath with Harris’s own experience of balancing motherhood and artistry. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer.
Copy 13/20
Blooming Books/Burning Blooming Books (2023) by Kathryn Schug (CSB '25)
Letterpress printed in Park Ave Script lead type in the Welle Book Arts Studio at the College of Saint Benedict. Handbound in a Coptic stitch dos-a-dos format (both covers serve as front covers). One mat board cover includes pieces of handmade paper, and the other has singed edges.
Copies 1-2/3 [Not in the Clemens Collection]
Artist Statement
I wanted to write poems that highlight the importance of books. One poem, “Blooming Books" argues for the importance of books, while the other poem, “Burning Blooming Books” explains the destructive and ill-advised activity of burning books. A quote from the German poet Heinrich Heine is the epigraph in “Burning Blooming Books.” The beauty of this book is that the poems and structure were made simultaneously.
- Kathryn Schug CSB ‘25