Excerpts from Exhibition Catalogue - Curatorial Statement:

“How does an artist give shape to words, substance to memory, or color to music? What is that subtle chemistry that acts upon the viewer to transform familiar materials, words and images into a new form that is more than the sum of its parts? That mysterious alchemy of adaptation, reduction confusion in the hands of artists is the subject of this exhibition.”

“Curating an exhibition is a conscious act of preference and selection. Though the overlay of personal taste is sometimes unavoidable, the one consistent factor guiding my choice is honesty. Is the artist’s intent communicated? Is the text or narrative in balance with the visual treatment? Does the content and choice of materials act in unison on the viewer, or is the work self-conscious and overproduced? Will the book still resonate overtime? My only regret is that many deserving works were omitted, not through lack of appreciation but lack of space.”

“A final note about the catalog - we have kept the arrangement of the exhibition, where the works were arranged in thematic ‘families’ as a way of emphasizing how shared creative inspiration can lead to such enormously varied expression in the finished piece. Like different pitches in a chorus, they enhance each other's voice by being near one another period. I have sought to choose books that are a balanced orchestration of all their elements, communicating on many levels - from nuanced color to unexpected touch to layered or visual text. Take time to let them unfold slowly and read them not only with your eyes, but also with your espirit and all of your senses.” - Ruth R. Rogers

The exhibition of 94 books was arranged into the 10 sections as follows:

1. Communication / Alienation
2. Gender Politics
3. Heritage
4. Inner Landscape
5. Memory
6. Natural World and Place
7. Revisioning Science
8. The Generous Muse
9. Visual Text
10. World Conflict

1. Communication / Alienation

In our increasingly mediated world, themes of alienation and lost connection with others are becoming more common in artists’ books period. Generic figures appear and fade anonymously in crowded city intersections, fragments of conversations are overheard and faint typographic marks on the page are the only traces of their presence. A faceless figure attempts to climb over a wall of indecipherable words. Breakdown in personal connection is only one way to be isolated; marginalization by minority status is another. Though the public face of racism is well documented in print, it takes on an intimate dimension when a textbook, intented for a white audience, is altered and personalized by a black man. Or when one family's tragedy is told through the history of the Civil Rights Movement and snapshots, with the directness of a children's book. - Ruth R Rogers

2. Gender Politics

From medically rationalized gender bias, gender stereotype, suppressed homosexuality and longing, to recent photos of a gay/transvestite hangout in Cuba, these works were all inspired by the tension around issues of gender and sexuality. Inspiration can come from source material such as historic archival records and found correspondence, which offer a subtext more immediate than a retold third person narrative. Alternatively, an artist may juxtapose lush close-up religious imagery and devotional poetry that misleads the reader until the final page, only to discover that the book is an elegy, a commentary on the hypocrisy of national anti-abortion laws that destroy lives. - Ruth R. Rogers

3. Heritage

Books have always held worlds within. Their stories and pictures offer the reader a sedentary journey to unknown lands, both real and fantastic. Now imagine a book turned inside out, its meaning made sensory with pages of indigenous textiles, and covers sewn with patterned silk, prayer robes, or bullet casings. Evocative staging for the content is only one dimension of reading in these works. Through intimate photos of strangers, landscapes, and exotic scripts of multiple languages on the page, cultural immersion is complete.  Artists address themes of racism and redemption, culture clash and assimilation, and the many ways of praying, beseeching, laughing, and giving thanks. What emerges from the mix is the realization that the further from home we travel, the more we are the same.- Ruth R. Rogers

4. Inner Landscape

Themes of isolation, illness, loss, mortality, and afterlife can sometimes seem too personal for a general audience, making the reader feel like a voyeur. In the works shown here, however, we are reminded of our universal human frailties and strivings, regardless of nationality, religion, or time. Artists have used dream and maze imagery, the haptic qualities of handmade papers and synthetic surfaces, and a monochrome palette to evoke private struggle. - Ruth R. Rogers

5. Memory

The merging of private and public is a recurring theme in these works.  Techniques like collaged and sequenced photographs of a loved one, with fragments of text, or missing letters of words on translucent paper speak of private emptiness and longing.  Conversely, the very public and impersonal nature of newspaper classified ads or a tragic historic event is made intimate and material with handwriting, old family photographs, fabric layers, personal names, and closed containers to preserve them. - Ruth R. Rogers

6. Natural World and Place

The works shown here are inspired by a place, whether a man-made city such as Venice or New York, swirling patterns of light on stone in Australia, or the barren ice floes of Antarctica. Some use poetry as the starting point, giving color and form to the poet’s vision of a late summer day or winter’s chill.  The journey takes us from the minute to the majestic. We behold the digitally magnified veins of a banana leaf or the minutely engraved wing of a mayfly. From the riveted steel of the Brooklyn Bridge to decaying Sanskrit inscriptions in India, artists and writers collaborate to give these places an ethereal and material presence. - Ruth R. Rogers

7. Revisioning Science

Scientific inquiry has always combined imagination and experimentation; giving artists abundant source material to interpret visually. With complex hinged structures and cryptic diagrams, the mysteries of alchemy, radioactivity, and astronomy are explored in the works shown. The rustle of ink-black tissue paper echoes the ocean. The standard periodic table morphs into vibrant color maps and cascading ribbons, indexing significant real data on the chemical composition of the world around us. A scanner becomes an x-ray machine, giving us a glimpse into the silent, animated world of crumpled paper. What is this revisioning—this fusion of science and art, where data, diagrams, and beauty exist in equal measure? - Ruth R. Rogers

8. The Generous Muse

This theme pays tribute to the creative inspiration that comes from another’s original work, in the form of either poetry or music. Artists have transformed the rhythms of Satie, Cage, and Bach into color pattern and typographic counterpoint. Note how the use of negative space uncovers alternate meanings in the sonnets of Shakespeare or how a captured moving image reveals a ghostly presence in Rafael Alberti’s poems. - Ruth R. Rogers

9. Visual Text

Typographic experimentation goes back at least to the early 20th century with the shaped poetry of Apollinaire, and the Futurist and Avant-Garde movements in Europe.  The work of their contemporary counterparts on view here is immediately accessible through its sheer dynamic exuberance and humor. Some artists use traditional etching and letterpress, while others use collage and paper engineering to give text movement and form. Even computer-generated texts require intense manual manipulation and software precision to achieve the final effect, reminding us that a tool, whether digital or analog, is only as good as the hand that guides it. - Ruth R. Rogers

10. World Conflict

Artists are often drawn to the narrative and visual possibilities of the book form to explore issues of social justice, war, and global politics. Part documentary, part personal diary, and sometimes confrontational in tone, these works can have a visceral effect on the reader. Note how the materials used can embed meaning without words, such as paper made from soldiers’ uniforms, or the clothing of land mine victims. The detritus of war—a used mortar shell, becomes a book enclosure, a memorial to 9/11 victims builds itself from separate sections into two five-foot towers, and a tribute to migrant laborers takes the form of a Latin prayer book. - Ruth R. Rogers