Book as Art Flight Edition by Decatur Arts Alliance

The Book as Art: Flight Edition An exhibition presented by the Department of Aviation Art Program October 2018 – October 2019 A book begins as a small mass of material, formed and pressed into life by ideas, words, and machines. A concept becomes thought, becomes word, becomes book, becomes sculpture. From the tactile complexity of handmade paper, to the alteration of existing volumes, to a variety of other materials and concepts, these objects, in an increasingly digital world, stubbornly survive. The objects in this exhibition interpret the concept of the book and invite the viewer to look beyond the printed page to where word has become form. Book As Art: Flight Edition is a compilation of award winning works and invited pieces assembled from a critically acclaimed artist book exhibition established by the Decatur Arts Alliance in 2013. Entries for these juried exhibitions from 2013–2017 hail from across the United States and around the world, and from emerging artists as well as recognized masters in the genre. The Book As Art: Flight Edition is pleased to present these examples from the finest in the field. The Airport Art Program develops and integrates art, exhibits and performances into the fabric of the ATL environment for the benefit of passengers and employees. For more information about this exhibition or the Airport Art Program, contact 404/382-2250 or visit: ATL.com. #ATLAirportArt @ATLairport The Book as Art: Flight Edition is curated by Davis-Moye & Associates The Book as Art: Flight Edition is sponsored by the following:

Decatur Arts Alliance Visit Decatur Georgia Georgia Center for the Book

DeKalb County Public Library

Artworks from The Book as Art: Flight Edition can be viewed in the following locations on the E Concourse of Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport: Gates E8 and E9 – 4 wall cases, Gate E15 – 1 wall case, Gates E27 and E32 – 4 wall cases

Heather Allen Hietala, Asheville, NC

On a Journey Salt fired ceramic boat form with a book created of topographic charts and persimmon tannin in the center The journey of life is my muse. A boat evokes a sense of a journey, of going and coming, and a vessel is a symbol for self. A book is a vessel of knowledge and takes us on adventures. The vessel in its many forms is my muse. It is a metaphor for interior and exterior, of containment, and of transport and journey. Vessels are both universal and personal. I begin with an idea and use the material that best suits it. Working with a wide variety of materials allows me to create associations, of clay and cloth, gut and wire, open and closed, hard and soft, and line and form. The vessel and the book allow me a vehicle to investigate ideas, narratives, and relationships. Photography: Steve Mann

Islam Aly, Cedar Falls, IA

Marginalia 1 Laser cur Arabic calligraphy on handmade flax paper and mold-made Johannot paper; laser engraved Plexiglas covers, Coptic binding Edition of 20, AP Islam Aly is currently an assistant professor of Art Education in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa. At Helwan University, Egypt he received a BA and an MA in Art Education; afterward, he graduated from the University of Iowa, with an MFA in Book Arts and a Ph.D. in Teaching and Learning with a concentration in Art Education. His books explore the possibilities of historical bindings in contemporary book art practice. He has combined book traditions with digital technologies. His work is created at the junction between culture, technology, and aesthetics. The design of Marginalia 1 is inspired from Arabic commentaries that were written in different books. These commentaries have a unique shape, and layout. It usually would contrast with the geometrical design of the page. The commentaries played an important role in the transmission and transformation of knowledge. I wanted to show the beauty of their calligraphy on the handmade flax paper. I selected ten different pages for each of the ten sections. I used the laser cutter to cut each section and engrave the front cover. The sections were attached to the Plexiglas covers and sewn together using a two-needle Coptic link stitch. Finally I sewed the end bands. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Alexis Arnold, San Francisco, CA

The Alchemist (Crystallized Book) Book, borax My material and process-driven art practice explores time, transformation, and perception through sculptures, installation, and mixed media 2D artwork. I aim to recontextualize the commonplace, disguise the recognizable, and highlight the aesthetic traits of the materials, found objects, and subjects in my work. Subjects and processes I investigate through my work include the perception and experience of light and color, geologic processes, and the visual presence of time. These concepts are illustrated through works that alter optically, challenge material expectations, and look to geologic time and form. My Crystallized Book Series addresses the materiality versus the text or content of the book. The crystals remove the text and solidify the books into aesthetic, non-functional objects. The books, manipulated with water, then frozen with crystal growth, have become artifacts or geologic specimens imbued with the history of time, use, and memory. The crystals and book shapes spark a sense of wonder akin to a great piece of literature, like some of the titles I use, but certainly not all, such as an obsolete software manual or an old phone book. The series was prompted by repeatedly finding boxes of discarded books, by the onset of e-books, and by the shuttering of bookstores. While the series began in 2011 as a reaction to the vulnerability of printed media, it seems that printed media has experience a bit of a renaissance. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Andi Arnovitz, Jerusalem, Israel

Paradigm Shifts of the 21st Century Offset printing. Set of cards in slipcase Edition of 500 A paradigm shift is a change from one way of thinking to another- it is a fundamental alteration in an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s way of looking at or experiencing the world. Today there are massive shifts in morality, standards, values, behaviors, concerns, and technologies. These 35 postcards reflect these changes. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Charlene Asato, Mountain View, HI

Tea Path Piano hinge book Tea dyed kozo paper, toothpicks, walnut ink This piano hinge book structure together with the soft kozo paper creates the opportunity for different paths. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Anne Beidler, Decatur, GA

50 Books: Red Thread Mixed media, including ink, paint, wax, sewing, collage and found objects Filled with reds and golds and Buddhist images, this installation of multiple small books refrains with Asian themes and imagery. The focus of the imagery for this project is based in images from the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own photographs, prints, and drawings. Found materials include Chinese joss paper that is used to honor ancestors. Media include ink, paint, wax, sewing, collage, and found objects. Each small book seems to echo a temple entryway and evokes a place of contemplation or worship. Photography: Tom Meyer

Cynthia Brinich-Langlois, Milwaukee, WI

Book of Hours: Tire Trough Scroll, cyanotype, cowhide, canvas Through exploration of the landscape genre, my work considers human interventions in terms of altered topographies, visual approaches to recording time, and metaphorical interpretations of ecological systems. I utilize a range of processes in my research, blending interests in printmaking, drawing, book arts, and writing to create objects that are at once illustrative in style and expansive in concept. Several of my recent projects involve performative acts, consisting of drawings completed over twenty-four hours to create panoramic portraits of place. Like historical books of hours with prayers that evoke time of day, I complete each composition at its appropriate interval to capture effects on perception, technique, and concentration and how these traces of the creation of the images tie that print not only to a place, but also to a time. Each book includes text describing observations/ contemplations recorded while drawing throughout the day and night. Photography: Joseph Mougel

Savannah Carlin, Warwick, RI

Untitled Silkscreen (gold) on silk (blue) My work seeks answers and attempts to understand my body’s relationship to the world, faith, devotion and religion. Highly influenced by my Irish Catholic and Southern Baptist roots, I grasp for understanding of myself as an artist while grappling with faith in religion—perceiving the devout’s connection to God as metaphor for my dependence on my artistic practice. I use repetitive processes such as printmaking to create a meditative element to my art making practice. I make objects that call upon iconography from the tradition of Abrahamic religious art through my use of symbols. I am heavily influenced by my recent six-month stay in Rome, Italy. During my time there, I became inspired by the architecture, textiles, patterns and baroque sculptures as well as the patina of the city. This is directly visible through the imagery and materiality I choose for my work. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Martin and Erik Demaine, Cambridge, MA

Thru the Looking Glass Elephant hide paper and hand blown glass Inspired by Lewis Carroll's books “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass”, we printed the latter title and the quote “curiouser and curiouser” in repeating patterns on paper, folded along concentric circular creases, and inserted into hand-blown glass sculpture, placing the pieces literally through a looking glass. This work is an exploration in combining two mediums, paper and glass, and two fields, art and science, in our quest to understand curved-crease origami. Photography: Erik and Martin Demaine

Brian Dettmer, Brooklyn, NY

Webster Withdrawn Hardcover book with carved pages Courtesy of the artist and P•P•O•W, New York In Webster Withdrawn, a 1941 copy of Webster’s Universities Dictionary is made frozen; open and exposed to reveal the inner architecture and faded forms from its recent past. Information and imagery is lost while columns and margins connect and rise. Negative spaces create cavities of lost information and remaining bits become barricaded from any specifics. An empty silhouette faces away from the shell of missing information, suffering from a faded memory and a fear of the instability of the forms of the future. Photography: Courtesy of the artist and P•P•O•W, New York

Lindsey Dunnagan, Fort Worth, TX

Wax Chrysalis Wax, velum, string, board, paper, pearls Edition of 10 Notions of interconnection, place, and identity over time are explored in the artist book Wax Chrysalis. Spaces of nebulous watercolor are juxtaposed against detailed maps of important places. These locations are significant to my identity and provide a way to navigate what is unknown. Maps are blown up and shrunk down; they are turned on an axis and then reconnected, where lines meet organically. Because these maps are a combination of actual places and false connections, they serve as an atlas of memory that informs identity. Wax Chrysalis begins and ends the same way. Similar to a life cycle, there is a beginning, a middle, and a chance to reflect on the journey. The intimate nature of the materials used, including velum, wax, and string, contrast with the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large size, contributing to a feeling of vulnerability and vastness; I am asking the viewer to traverse a lifetime in one sitting. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Stephanie Dykes

Querl Altered, folded book, circular lacy shape Courtesy of Lockey McDonald Collection Dykesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Querls are books that are transformed by the repetition of one simple act performed faithfully each day. Individually, each book form is an artifact of an activity. The accumulation of these objects dislocates the emphasis from their normal use-value to their value as evidence, and frames these objects as having another use-value. As objects of contemplation, they are prompters of making and remembering. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Margot Ecke, Atlanta, GA

Epic Book pages on custom curved shelf My work is an investigation of how we process information. I am especially interested in story development and layout. Almost any story falls under one of three story structure layouts: the round, the epic, and the choose-your-own adventure. Most tales, from a Jane Austen novel to a Terminator movie, fall under the category of the epic story structure. This piece, with its rise to a climax and resulting denouement, reflects the epic structure. The words printed along the spine of the book read, “The rise and fall of our hero occurs on these pages.” Nothing but the story structure is highlighted; the pages are blank and there is no cover title advertising a specific plot. I have chosen the Coptic structure, one of the earliest known binding structures, for this piece because of its flexible and visible spine. The text has been letterpress printed and the letters sliced up and wrapped over each section’s spine so that the resulting combination of spine strips spells out a message. Margot Ecke is the owner of Smokey Road Press, a letterpress and bookbinding studio in Decatur, GA. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from Cornell University. She has a Professional Printing Certificate from the Tamarind Institute and a Certificate in Bookbinding from the North Bennett Street School in Boston. Margot has worked as a book conservator at the Carolina Rediviva Library in Uppsala, Sweden and was the Victor Hammer Fellow in the Book Arts at Wells College in Aurora, New York from 2004-2006. She is currently a professor at the Savannah College of Art in Atlanta. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Leslie Eliet, Gloucester, MA

Walking (Ink) Meditation, Part XIII: August Bloom Etching, water-colored. Accordion My books are part of a series called Walking (Ink) Meditations. They present a linked set of abstract etched images sometimes accompanied by sumi ink or watercolor additions in accordion book format. They can be either viewed as folded, page by page, or spread out in a configuration resembling a folding Japanese screen or presented unfolded behind plexiglass on a wall (covers are detachable). The title Walking (Ink) Meditations describes my approach to the making of the images as well as to the viewing of them, presenting meditations on landscape, climate and time in a sequence as if the viewer were walking through my memories and impressions of the natural world. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Daniel Essig, Asheville, NC

Sacred Geometry - Reliquary Carved olive wood, nails, pen nibs, relic, wax, mica, pottery, coin, shell. Ethiopian and Coptic bindings Sacred Geometry-Reliquary is a work in an ongoing series of pieces inspired by NKisi N'Kondi power figures. A few years ago I had the great honor to teach a semester in Cortona, Italy with the University of Georgia Athens. Sacred Geometry-Reliquary was created in Italy during this trip and nearly all materials used in building this piece were collected during my travels, hikes, and the occasional antique market. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Priscilla Foster and Arielle Langhorne, Bozeman, MT

Circus Bookboard, paper, fabric Inspired by photographer Arielle Langhorne’s styled Senior Shoot, I created a one-of-a kind fine art album that fully embraced her mysterious and macabre circus theme. My ideas centered on making an elaborate “tent” box that would frame the beckoning ringmaster who lures people inside. My desire to juxtapose the colorful box with a dark and simple album cover was based on similar visual associations throughout the album. Photography: Arielle Langhorne

Ania Gilmore, Lexington, MA

Library of Alexandria Altered book, rolled and burned pages, wax, shellac, ink, stamped Agnes Martin once wrote “An Artist is the one who can fail and fail and still go on” — these powerful words reaffirmed my creative journey by inspiring me to realize that art is a process that when started can never be finished. While studying design and printmaking I discovered a great passion for Book Arts. In my work, I explore the book itself, the boundaries between the form and the content. As an emigrant, I am infused with inspiration resident in my roots and history. I am interested in the continuous growing dialogue of identity and multiculturalism, which is a central element in modern society. The source of my imagery, which explores the connection between chaos and order amongst themes, is both derived by chance and experimentation. The Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt was the largest and most famous of the libraries of the ancient world, founded at the beginning of the third century BCE. Plutarch (CE 46–120) wrote that during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BCE, Julius Caesar accidentally burned the library down when he set fire to his own ships to frustrate Achilles’ attempt to limit his ability to communicate by sea. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Francine Goodfriend, Santa Rosa, CA

Busy Bees Multi media, multi folds I have been creating artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s books for the past fourteen years. I have discovered the combination of collage, painting, and the written word a perfect conduit to express my love of reading and the visual arts. I attempt to give my work an ancient tinge by using books bound for the recycler usually early 20th century encyclopedias and dictionaries. I work in layers excavating images and language. The theme of the book is bees. I became fascinated watching the bees gather nectars in my garden. I also became aware of the honeybeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hive collapse. I began to collect old texts about bees. As I gained more knowledge of bees and bookbinding I painted on fabric to create materials to collage about bees and incorporate into books. This book is a lotus book structure. The book is enclosed in a handmade box collaged with similar materials used in the lotus book. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Mari Eckstein Gower, Redmond, WA

Soldier's Heart Accordion fold book based on the Bayeux Tapestry Soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heart deals with the ways our culture has historically dealt with soldiers suffering from PTSD. The book is a long accordion fold narrative inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Jerushia Graham, Jonesboro, GA

Soar Watercolor washes, eco-printing, color pencil, and paper collage pop-up Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Karen Hardy, Asheville, NC

Portal Handmade paper with letterpress monoprinting and copper covers Portal is a tribute to the value of books as gateways to other real and imagined worlds. It is inspired by how reading allows one to travel to new places, in the mind, even those that are outside the realm of physical possibility. The expanding pages reference how the brain generates new neural pathways as one enters a story or comprehends the information contained inside a book. To further suggest the accumulation of ideas and connections between them, I layered permutations of repeated imagery on the translucent handmade paper. The bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s covers are made of copper with perforations, and a patina much like a well-traveled vessel from a different time and place. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Candace Hicks, Nacogdoches, TX

String Theory Embroidered book I’ve collected coincidences for ten years. It started when I read two books in a row that both included the phrase “antique dental instrument”. While that was not the first coincidence I ever noticed in my reading, that singular instance convinced me to keep a record. I began to consider that the phrase might have been the profound masquerading as the mundane. Or not. But I wanted to collect the data. I cataloged my coincidences in composition books that filled rapidly. As it turned out, “antique dental instrument” has not held any special meaning in my life or my art. Neither have any of the coincidental phrases that followed, such as “stuffed mountain lion” or “black currant lozenge” but the act of noticing them became the lens through which I filter the world and my experiences. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Shireen Modak Holman, Montgomery Village, MD

Time Handmade paper, pulp painting, woodcuts, gampi, letterpress This book examines ways of thinking about time, from the perspectives of art, religion, literature, and science. Time can seem fleeting, eternal, or elastic. It is unstable. When you try to pinpoint a moment of time, it has already gone. A similar thing happens when you try to pinpoint the meaning of time. You think you understandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;then, like time itself, your idea escapes your grasp. People have tried to conquer time by creating works that last long after their lifetimes. Time appears to be constantly moving in one direction, so we try to make it concrete by measuring itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; with clocks and calendars. We read sundials by the shadows they create, and speak of the long shadows of time. In Hinduism time is not linear, but is cyclical and considered to be a necessary condition of all growth and decay. Time is also seen as a manifestation of God. The book consists of woodcuts printed onto pulp-painted handmade paper. Part of the imagery is within the paper itself (the pulp paintings), and part of the imagery is printed on the surface of the paper with oil-based inks (the woodcuts). This gives the images a sense of depth and makes it possible to create areas that fade in out of focus, as does our grasp of the meaning of time. Over several years, as I worked on the imagery, I read and selected texts that would illustrate my visual representations of time. For the text, handset letterpress type was printed onto gampi, which I then pasted onto the handmade paper. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Mary Hood, Temple, AZ

Not Fade Away Multiple small volumes. Handmade paper on wood panel, ink My installations emerged from working with artists’ books as a sculptural form; expanding the intimate nature of the book; the one-on-one relationship between the object and the viewer and broadening the work's communicative power by deconstructing the book and identify the basic elements that compose a book structure. Over time my books turned inside out, creating installations where the viewers’ experience is singular and multiple simultaneously. Each flying book in the Not Fade Away installation is a metaphor for the transformation of an individual’s perception as an attempt to gain a higher personal understanding of their world and themselves over the course of a lifetime of learning. The transition from dark to light, from lower to higher, is symbolic of the this enlightened state. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Andrew Huot, Norcross, GA

Navigation Letterpress printed and colored paper with hand-cut holes, bound in cloth-covered boards Sometimes itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the stars that guide you. This book uses city names to make the constellations used to guide the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family to their next destination. A carousel book that spans over 8 feet when open, the dark blue paper and cut holes reveal the light shining on the background paper Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Diane Jacobs, Portland, OR

object n. object v. Wood, glass, ceramic, human hair, letterpress, paper. The Amazon side of the book is letterpress printed from handset type, polymer plates, and pressure printing. Amazon ink drawings were inspired from imagery on Greek pottery. Other materials used: chicken egg shells, plaster, tangerine skin, gold leaf, acrylic balls, antique glass/ aluminum slide mounts, India ink on vellum, oil paint, water color, human hair, wood, leather, Johannot, mulberry, and hahnemuhle paper, aluminum combs, ceramic, dog tags, and molded handmade cotton paper. Edition of 4 object n. object v. is a sculptural artist book that juxtaposes two very different realities for women who lived north of the Mediterranean Sea during Classical antiquity. Ancient Greek society regarded beauty along with chastity as the most important characteristics for females; male desire objectified the female body. But beautiful women also represented danger that had to be controlled, thus giving rise to an oppressive and misogynist culture. At the same time, an egalitarian nomadic society roamed from Thrace as far east as Mongolia. These Scythian women warriors were known as Amazons. These starkly opposite realities simultaneously obscure and magnify our present struggle for equality. Photography: Courtney Frisse

Peggy Johnston, Des Moines, IA

Reticula Curva Walnut dyed rosin paper, waxed linen thread, copper. Bound accordion. 118 signatures of walnut dyed crinkled rosin paper are sewn to three one-inch wide copper straps using a herringbone stitch. Copper circles are attached to random pages at the fore edge of the book. My love of paper and fascination with containers made it almost inevitable that I would discover the book arts. Since crafting my first book, I have explored bookmaking as an art as well as a craft. I focus on the book as an art object. I think of myself as a sculptor using bookbinding techniques. The mechanics and engineering involved in book structures fascinate me. Often, I will exaggerate elements of book design in creating these sculptural pieces. I lean toward distinctive materials (old leather, metal, wood, old books) when designing my one-of-a-kind works. The materials I choose add a tactile aspect to the work. I search for just the right materials for some projects, but other times materials at hand suggest a project or design to me. I often say that I am not in control of my art. It controls me. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Jess Jones, Avondale Estates, GA

Open Book Handmade paper, stitchery, screen printing This piece, titled Open Book, contains paper made from all of the love letters I have ever received. Through hand papermaking, I have simultaneously destroyed and preserved, exposed and concealed the most personal documents I have possessed. The stitched lines of Morse Code, the screen-printed pattern, and the sewn darning structure reference the security feature found on the inside of envelopes. Perpendicular intersections of prints and threads create warp and weft, making text into textile. This coded language speaks back to my unaware collaborators. Photography: Drew Stauss, Departure Studio

Lauri Jones, Decatur, GA

Chained Rust print on Stonehenge paper, accordion fold binding The rusted objects that inspire me are simple, yet they have the ability to tell complex and layered stories. Mark making with rust is unpredictable and I delight in â&#x20AC;&#x153;the revealâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;when I see what has transpired on the paper. This element of surprise allows me to respond honestly and intuitively . . . and be perpetually thrilled by the possibilities. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Ellen Knudson, Gainesville, FL

American Breeding Standards Hardcover book with cutouts, foldouts, letterpress. Slipcase AP/2 American Breeding Standards explores the systematized rules about what comprises a good or bad horse, a good or bad womanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the steps one might take to achieve the breed standard. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Ann Kresge, Salem, OR

Shadow Play Etching, letterpress, handmade paper, hand bound concertina binding. Printmaking on vellum and handmade paper Courtesy of Mark and Catherine Hall Collection Kresge’s work is concerned with a sense of place. She is fascinated by people’s connection to the elements and geography. She thinks about ideas, forces and people gathering and dispersing. A contemporary printmaker and book artist she thinks in paper, pattern, series, sequence. layers and interiors. In this submitted work she explores through printmaking and book objects—a set of kites, a shadow puppet theater, tunnel books. Kresge is an internationally exhibited artist and is in private collections and in collections at universities and museums, including The National Museum of Women In the Arts, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Yale University, New York Public Library and the US Library of Congress. She has been an Artist-in-Residence at Djerassi, MacDowell Colony, Artlife Latinoamericano, Atellier17, and Women’s Studio Workshop; a Library Fellow at the National Museum of Women in the Arts; and a Teaching Artist at Sitka Center. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Smith College and a MFA in Printmaking from Pratt Institute. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Karen Kunc and Helen Heibert, Avoca, NE

LandEscape Woodcut, letterpress, handmade watermarked paper of cotton and abaca. Accordion folded, and housed in a covered box with handmade paper design My prints and books often deal with my own “print” issues—reading and perception questions—how one is aware of subtle printed elements, how one reads on multiple dimensional printed levels, how the eye moves through the works into my designed entrances and exits, where one gets entwined and held, and where a simple ending forms. My visual sense has always been about how I transform my world, what I see, study and the ways I interpret my simple surroundings—from instinct, to forms, to concept, to abiding life issues. The experience of making and thinking is what influences my visual instinct and interconnections, which results in the works themselves. For me, there is a love of materials as I make my book—awareness of paper, ink, proportion, color, relationships, finish, detail, all parts to the whole, with evidence of craftsmanship. I am making an aesthetic object, even a beautiful one, as a carrier of important ideas. This book began with drawings twisted (literally) in string that established a collaborative landscape realized over two years of conversation and trust. Helen Hiebert created watermarked illustrations in an artist-made cotton/abaca paper, and Karen Kunc responded by producing a woodcut image that interacts with the watermarks, fitting into the spaces, overlapping, making edges, and saturating them with color. Paper and print are meant to intrigue with shadows and illusions. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Carol Kunstadt, West Hurley, NY

Sacred Poem LXVII 24-karat gold leaf, thread, pages from Parish Psalmody dated 1849. 504 knots Utilizing both a reductive and additive process, embracing its inherent qualities while transforming the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pages, the paper itself gains significance through the process and merges with a new intent. Visually there is a consistent and measured cadence to a page of psalms that is echoed in the repetitive weaving or restructuring of the paper: pages are cut in strips and woven creating an altered dense surface. The repetitive action of sewing, knotting and weaving is similar to reciting, singing, and reading: implying that through the repetition of a task or ritual one has the possibility to transcend the mundane. The use of gold leaf elevates and heightens the rich textural qualities. The interplay alludes to the enticing presentation of illuminated texts historically. Explored and displayed in this visual context, the alteration of the papersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; linear, tactile, and facile nature emphasizes transformation, while the possibility of revelation is playfully realized. Photography: Kevin Kunstadt

Carole Kunstadt, West Hurley, NY

Sacred Poem LXXV 24-karat gold leaf, thread, pages from Parish Psalmody dated 1849. 342 knots Cut, woven, gilded, knotted Utilizing both a reductive and additive process, embracing its inherent qualities while transforming the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pages, the paper itself gains significance through the process and merges with a new intent. Visually there is a consistent and measured cadence to a page of psalms which is echoed in the repetitive weaving or restructuring of the paper: pages are cut in strips and woven creating an altered dense surface. The repetitive action of sewing, knotting and weaving is similar to reciting, singing, and reading: implying that through the repetition of a task or ritual one has the possibility to transcend the mundane. The use of gold leaf elevates and heightens the rich textural qualities. The interplay alludes to the enticing presentation of illuminated texts historically. Explored and displayed in this visual context, the alteration of the papersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; linear, tactile, and facile nature emphasizes transformation, while the possibility of revelation is playfully realized. Photography: Kevin Kunstadt

Sarah Langworthy, Iowa City, IA

Upon Closer Inspection Intaglio prints, stiff leaf binding. The book is contained in a custom-built drop spine box. The box has a built-in display cradle to show the book. I want to call attention to beauty in unremarkable places: the grey of wet concrete seen through holes in a leaf on the sidewalk, light reflected on the wall in midafternoon. A restrained palette gives emphasis to differences between closely related but separate things. The artist book format provides an inherent two-sidedness. For every page, each front is also a back. The only way to view the entire piece is to relinquish a part of it. With print, I am most interested in edges; where two color blocks nearly touch, the areas where ink saturates the paper, making you aware of both the printed surfaces and the paper acting as mediating substrate between the pages. My process is more akin to collaging with printed elements at the press than to strategic letterpress design and production Spontaneity exists alongside a thought out page and careful presswork. I work back and forth between written words and pictorial elements; images are inspired by a text, and texts grow from images. Photography: Tom Langdon

Joseph Lappie, Davenport, IA

The Articifer Arisen, The Articifer Fallen Letterpress, handmade cotton/flax paper Daedalus is the central character throughout this cyclical storyline. One half of the book examines the ancient Greek engineerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recurring habit of creating something fantastic only to have it cause personal tragedy. As time moves along things slowly become worse with larger ramifications. The other half presents a Daedalus-style figure reappearing in the twenty-first century and is immersed in a world where his quick ascension leads directly to his inevitable downfall. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Jenn Law, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Artifact 3-d printed book In the face of contemporary debates surrounding the purported crisis in print culture, Law contemplates the future of the book, our fetishization and attachment to its physical object/form, and our desire to collect and possess the knowledge contained therein. Artifact is a 3-D printed â&#x20AC;&#x153;replicaâ&#x20AC;? of a book by Edmund C. Berkeley, an American computer scientist who wrote one of the earliest popular volumes on computers in 1949, Giant Brains or Machines That Think. The 3D book is open to Chapter 11, in which Berkeley imagines the potential social impact and benefits of computers (giant or mechanical brains) on mankind. Though fabricated using the most advanced printing technology, it is in fact unreadable. The pages are printed on the surface, but do not turn; the book is open, but cannot close. It exists solely as an art object, an artifact of sorts. As a book it is redundant. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Ruth Laxson, Atlanta, GA

Wheeling Handset type, Beckett and Graphica papers, proof and offset presses, silk screened images. Courtesy of Marcia Wood Gallery Ruth Laxson was born in 1924 in Roanoke, Alabama, and is one of Atlanta's most beloved artists and is recognized as one of the nation's preeminent artists’ bookmakers. Her work is in the collections of major museums and artists’ book collections in the United States and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Victoria & Albert Museum and Tate Museums in London, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the High Museum in Atlanta, among many others. As communication is a major theme of Laxson’s work she uses language as a working material. Automatic writing and pattern poetry are the hallmarks of her artistic style as she merges text and image into text as image. The artist states “I hope to test the language for meaning and merge text and image in the spirit as the surrealists. But I want to take it a step farther to text as image.” Exquisite, meticulous craftsmanship and playful yet thorough exploration, are the hallmarks of the work, where she combines handset type with handwritten text, drawing, etching, stitching, layering, chine colle, ink, watercolor and more in perfectly hand bound small editions. Photography: Courtesy of Marcia Wood Gallery

Julia Leonard, Iowa City, IA

Beauty Persists Suminagashi, archival inkjet, letterpress printing on various papers. In Beauty Persists, one word, ‘erosion’, was used to create mesostics, a poetic form popularized by the artist John Cage. The writing is inspired by the Gay Head Cliffs on Martha’s Vineyard Island and the radical changes occurring due to the erosion of these glacial formations—and the many forms erosion can take, both physical and figuratively. Photographs taken at Gay Head, Japanese marbled sheets inspired by the colors and shapes of the cliffs, and prints created with scans of portions of the marbled papers accompany the mesostics. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Woody Leslie, Chicago, IL

Books on Tape Variable size - 9 elements. Found objects, paper, thread Books on Tape is a collected series of sculptural books that explore a humorous juxtaposition of technologies, and the questionable fate of the book in our digital age. The book (one of the oldest forms of technology for recording information) is remade using more modern record keepers, which themselves are more or less obsolete today. The modifications highlight the continued survival of the ancient book amidst the extinction of so many other technological advances. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Macey Ley, Atlanta, GA

The Belt of Orion's Never Wife Acrylic, linen thread This body of work (Versions of Truth) is about double entendre. Coptically bound, the reflective properties of fanned-out clear acrylic pages create optical illusions, where the viewer must decide what is real, what is a reflection, and if there is a difference between the two. Nothing gained is nothing lost, or so we tell ourselves when our best laid plans do not work as we expect. Like the hero Orion whose strength, skill and best intentions were no match for the stubbornness of the father and brother of the two women he loved, we often succumb to the fate of our own and others’ determination. In Orion’s case, he was made blind and later unintentionally killed by his lover through the tragic plot of her brother. The gods memorialized him among the stars – his belt the most prominent feature. The heart wants what it wants, but we cannot always plan for an outside intervention. Instead, we are left with the remnants of what if and the possibilities of ever after. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Cynthia Lollis and Daniela Deeg, Decatur, GA and Stuttgart, Germany

Luftperspektive (Aerial View) Double-sided accordion: archival pigment print on Yatsuo Moriki, flexible 3D plastic covers, gray board box Luftperspektive (Aerial View) is a collaborative book made by two women: a German and an American. Photographs in this double-sided accordion book afford 360˚ panoramic views of the two artists’ cities: Stuttgart from the Television Tower (Fernsehturm Stuttgart) on one side, and Atlanta from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel on the other. A poem by Rainer Maria Rilke is handwritten into the silhouettes of native birds circling above the landscape. This artists’ book about varying and shifting perspectives is light as air in one’s hands. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Eddy Lopez, Lewisburg, PA

Nicaragua: Surviving the Legacy of US Policy Digital print, framed My works are a series of amalgamations of books and photographs that chronicled the experiences of war by various artists, photojournalists, and writers. By layering together the entire contents of each book, the words and visuals in each of the texts become obfuscating abstractions that transform the memories and terrors captured within the pages. Born in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, during the chaos of the Sandinista revolution and raised in the sprawling suburbs of Miami, I am a painter and printmaker whose work clashes the past and present together by running computer algorithms that create heavily layered amalgamations of historical, mythological, political, and religious imagery. In these odd juxtapositions, I explore the intricacies of my contemporary experience as an artist; where, in the age of big data, social networks, Photoshop, and the 24-hour news cycle, the burin, ink, and pixel make the most sense. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Eddy Lopez, Lewisburg, PA

This Is War: Robert Capa at Work Digital print, framed My works are a series of amalgamations of books and photographs that chronicled the experiences of war by various artists, photojournalists, and writers. By layering together the entire contents of each book, the words and visuals in each of the texts become obfuscating abstractions that transform the memories and terrors captured within the pages. Born in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, during the chaos of the Sandinista revolution and raised in the sprawling suburbs of Miami, I am a painter and printmaker whose work clashes the past and present together by running computer algorithms that create heavily layered amalgamations of historical, mythological, political, and religious imagery. In these odd juxtapositions, I explore the intricacies of my contemporary experience as an artist; where, in the age of big data, social networks, Photoshop, and the 24-hour news cycle, the burin, ink, and pixel make the most sense. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Judy Lynn, Valparaiso, IN

Point Defiance Felted rocks, maps, wool, paper, floss My work involves the ephemeral qualities of memory and the attempt at its preservation. I use artists’ books to explore these thoughts through concept, narrative and form. This piece captures childhood memories of the beaches at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington. It also reflects a universal metaphor with the cairn structure signifying a point or landmark. This cairn marks a place, feeling, memory and sense of home for me: a location where my life’s journey has crossed many times. The cairn provides a focus for reflection and meditation. Two books in the cairn contain geographical survey maps that illustrate the location of Point Defiance. The placement of the maps within the rocks highlights both the physical reality of the space and how I’ve internalized the events. The name “Defiance” encouraged contrariness in my selection of the medium for the rocks. The wool felt brings softness and warmth to the stones and mirrors my sentiments of the memories themselves. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Kimberly Maher, Iowa City, IA

Two Lives Letterpress printed, pochoir, hand-cutting, movable/pop-ups Revealing themes of empathy and yearning, the story Two Lives unfolds around two sisters, one cruel caretaker to the other who is blind. One voice is hidden throughout the book with numerical clues until a pivotal moment culminates representing an accumulation of mistreatment. The viewer takes an active role in the reading by pulling tabs, lifting flaps, and physically manipulating the characters. All of the moving parts serve as visual metaphors for social interactions. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Patricia Malarcher, Edgewood, NJ

Triology Lite Paper, fabric, thread laminated in clear plastic My “Illuminations” consist of recycled pages from art books and magazines, fabrics, and threads laminated into clear plastic sheets. These are cut into “pages” of various sizes, then constructed into sculptural books with self-supporting structures. The configurations on the pages result from a casual placement of elements, but each contains a sampling of current cultural information. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Deborah Martin, Naples, FL

Mapping the Gulf Encaustic, found maps, thread. Accordion book, hung vertically To me, the artist book is a compelling art object—it is a means of conveying ideas through a visual and tactile means. The viewer is drawn to the sculptural quality of the book and the information hidden within. I love handmade papers, drawing and wax—I like to mix these elements in book form to express my ideas about our fragile environment and to make books that focus on the endangered Gulf of Mexico and the fragility of our environment in Southwest Florida. Wax and mixed media allow me to generate layers of information—text, imagery, papers—which combine to reveal and hide, creating a mysterious presence. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Sarah McDermott, Arlington, VA

Channel and Flow Letterpress printed and screenprinted with hand-made paper covers Channel and Flow documents an attempt to follow a stream on its path through a dense suburban neighborhood. It uses the structure of the bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s page turns and foldouts to represent how the stream has been contained and fragmented by the built environment. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

William Nixon and Susan Sawyer, Marietta, GA

Waleska Linocut, silk thread, letterpress. Accordion with loose folios sewn in Edition of 50 The artist book WALESKA was inspired by a residency in the lush, mountainous hills of Waleska, GA, as winter gave over to spring. Waleska was written and illustrated by William J. Nixon, Jr. The text and the linocut illustrations were letterpress printed and hand bound by Suzanne Sawyer of Down Home Girl Studio. The limited edition has 50 copies, each signed and numbered. WALESKA is a 36-page accordion-style book containing 34 poems printed 4 poems each on separate folios that are hand sewn into the accordion folds. The front and back covers are furnished with imported Japanese silk cloth. All materials used in the construction of this handcrafted book are archival. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Judy Parady, Decatur, GA

Salty Bible Salt crystallized Bible in a sardine can with slate base Salty Bible, comprised of a pocket bible soaked in salt water and left to crystallize, evokes the ephemera lost when floodwaters inundate a home. The bible is jammed into a sardine can and wired to a piece of slate somewhat denying its sacred authority. The flood story contained in the Old Testament, the story most familiar to Western civilizations, has God instructing Noah to build a boat in advance of a flood intended to cleanse the earth of a human population gone astray. In many other cultures there is no reason for the flood- it just happens, deal with it. I wonder if modern man is reluctant to face of our climate change warnings to avoid accepting blame for the situation. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Chris Perry, Ridgefield, CT

147 Ripples: vortex Book sculpture Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Dawn Peterson, Tybee Island, GA

Book Vessel Altered book with glass beads and leather tie, in the round with cherry wood base Peterson loves books! Especially creating and transforming the structure of a book. She is interested in combining various materials to create textures in each altered book such as glass beads and unique threads. Her work has been published in 500 Handmade Books, Hand Papermaking, and various magazines. Her work is in numerous public and private collections such a college and university libraries as well as companies and individuals. She is a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design where she teaches design elements and principles to students using book formats and structures. She is a member of the College Book Arts Association. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Robin Price, Middletown, CT

Altar Book for Górecki Triptych: 6 ornithological prints back and front of colored wood boards. Hinged with vellum Edition of 60 Altar Book for Górecki was conceived as a tribute to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3, the “Symphony of Sorrowful Songs,” and also became a way for me to grieve for my mother’s impending death. Lyrics printed in Polish, from calligraphy by Paul Shaw, and in English, with Stephenson Blake Perpetua and Guild Samson uncial types. Illustrated with reproductions from a seventeenth-century ornithology, and an abstract woodcut by Keiji Shinohara (monoprinted by Robin Price); hand-stained and letterpress-printed paper laminated onto colored wood boards. The structure is a triptych hinged with dyed vellum, housed in a custom-made cherry box by master woodworker Franklin Nichols. Altar Book was the first book published by the press in Middletown, CT, after the move from Los Angeles in 1995. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

John Risseeuw, Leonard Lehrer, and Joe Segura, Temple, AZ

Moorish Roses Accordion book of lithographic drawings. Litho and letterpress on Arches with handmade paper case Photography: Courtesy of the artists

Meda Rives Smith and Veda Rives Aukerman, Virden, IL

Book Environ Niche: Artists’ Books as Shelter, Escape, Epiphany; Shaping our Space, our Thoughts, and our Aspirations 7 hanging panels of lace-like handmade paper with inclusions. Suspended with monofilament from branches A BookEnviron is an artist’s book that by concept and scale creates an immersion experience for the viewer who enters and explores the space shaped by the pages. This book, one of a series of collaborative installations calls attention to the need in our daily lives for a place of quiet reflection, a place that inspires, a space that causes us to pause—if only momentarily— for an experience of uplifting renewal. As though released from their bindings, the pages shape the space, visually enveloping the viewer. The visual language is inspired by forms and rhythms of nature and is free of specific verbal language, cultural and religious references. The sequence of the imagery encourages viewers along actual journeys and suggests mental and spiritual journeys. Photography: Courtesy of the artists

Lisa Beth Robinson, Greenville, NC

Migration Multiple complex fold accordion. Handmade abaca paper linoleum cuts, pressure printing, letterpress from hand-cast type Edition of 36 Migration is about the personal transformation involved in commitment—to an area, to others, through the choices and fears and doubts experienced when trying to decide whether the place I live is one I will call “home.” I consider myself in self-exile when I live in a place that does not completely fit, and being the nomad that I am, this is often. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Leslie Ross-Robertson, Janet Kupchick, Jennifer Graves, and Jamie Russom, Los Angeles, CA

From There to Here Letterpress flag book From There to Here is collaboration between four artists whose talents and lives intersect at Otis College of Art and Design. The flag book structure presented the perfect form to incorporate four journeys to the college in both a literal storytelling manner as well as a larger historical perspective that brought the collaborators together. Photography: David Roy

Krista Sharp, Alexandria, VA

Martian Landscapes Screen print, woodcut, Arches and metallic paper cover Martian Landscapes is an artist book featuring abstract landscapes inspired by images obtained by NASAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mars Curiosity rover. The book features a quote from Ray Bradburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The Martian Chronicles which provides context for the imagery and the current mission planned to Mars by relating it to other settings that man has explored and in some instances destroyed. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Lynn Skordal, La Conner, WA

A Little Bird Told Me Vintage Hallmark poetry book with vintage photos and collages. Accordion A vintage Hallmark poetry book has been converted to an accordion-style collaged book about the secrets crows might tell about their human neighbors. The background images are adapted from vintage snapshots and printed on used tea bag papers, then collaged with book and paper scraps. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Stephanie Smith, Decatur, GA

Portrait of the Artist Linoleum print, accordion book My work is concerned with narrative and symbolism. It is an investigation of images of personal significance and an attempt to translate the personal into a universal reading by using symbols and metaphor. Visual storytellers Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel, as well as comix and graphic artists are an influence in much of my work. The visual iconography of medieval woodcuts and altarpieces serve as inspiration and a system of communication based on images and commonly understood symbols as opposed to reliance on the written word. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Whitney Stansell, College Park GA

The Happening, The Remembering, The Recounting Cut paper, screen print, water based media. Three piecesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;accordion landscape, cast of characters, box of figures I am interested in ideas of memory and history and the act of story telling. My work is influenced by the Southern tradition of oral narratives, and I mine family stories and the history/stories of my community as told by neighbors and friends. Presented here is a work that contains Three Books that act as one work of art. First, the Primary Characters, the viewer is invited to turn each page learning details about each individual. Second, the Landscape Book, a large potentially 18-foot sculpture of nine connecting landscapes. And then, finally, the third book, the Secondary Characters, a book of paper-doll-lie characters that are invited to explore the landscapes terrain. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Barbara Tetenbaum, Portland, OR

Gymnopaedia #5: A Day Without Words Hand-set Meridien type and printerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ornaments, pressure printing into shaped vinyl relief plates. All techniques were printed letterpress onto Zerkall papers. Hybrid accordion/codex structure Edition of 33 The text came from a piece of writing made while on sabbatical in Leipzig, Germany in 2009, pondering the inability to silence painful thoughts connected to my life in Portland, 5235 miles away. The images came out of a different motivation: desire to create a private visual space to calm my nerves during the stressful political campaigns. These two seemingly separate emotional investigations decided to come together in this book. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Cynthia Thompson, Philadelphia, PA

Recumbent Letterpress printing and archival pigment on handmade paper Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Todd Thyberg, Minneapolis, MN

Airship Graphic novel, letterpress The Airship is a science fiction story and first in a trilogy of planned letterpress graphic novels. In it, I seek to draw a literary analogy between the dichotomy of using modern day digital design tools to create works that are produced on vintage analog equipment. In this story, a character is transported to another dimension in space and time. Photography: Don Marshall

Cynthia Laureen Vogt, Brooklyn, NY

Listening to the Darkness Mixed media photographic collage My photographic collage works are meditations on the abstract mechanics of language, the body, and rhythm. Using the book form as a site for the gathering and dispersion of linguistic signs, time, absence, and movement are communicated through the photographic trace of figures and letters on layered surfacesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and vice versa: graphic symbols and anatomies are signified through cut-away absences. Their imagery is dominated by wooden block letters whose threedimensional forms align them with the human body. This sense of depth, furthered by the strata of media, is drawn into contrast by cutting both around and against the characters. The collage elements become a meta-language; in themselves representations of the very text, paper, or support over which they are layered, occasionally verso-side out. Intermittent use of acetate transparencies produce subtle reflections that shift and change with the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position. Communication is never still, but a continual process. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Melissa Wagner-Lawler, Milwaukee, WI

The Familiar Space Pressure printing, screen printing, laser cutting My current line of work investigates the moments before disaster or destruction. Elements of tension, the breakdown of information and the fragility of circumstance culminate in prints and artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; books. A Familiar Space was created using the prompts selected from the Artist Book Ideation Card set for an exhibition at Abecedarian Gallery during the summer of 2015. The prompts that were selected are listed below. The pages are full prints with imagery printing on both sides that can be removed from the binding. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Bethany Wood, Iowa City, IA

(Don't) Let Go Brass, copper, enamel tunnel book As a metalsmith, printmaker and book artist, I enjoy exploring the cross-sections of metal arts and printing processes. As artists, we create our own detritus through the process of making, and these castoffs also come with a unique potential for reuse. One way this actively manifests within my work is through an exploration of the unique nature of mark-making within sketches. Hastily gestural lines of sketches provide selective and sometimes abstracted information by describing notable or emphasized qualities of the subject. They are also used as an informal and generally unseen part of a planning or documenting process. I am interested in how these selectively descriptive styles of mark-making can be translated or interpreted from one form or medium to another, as from drawing to metal, metal to object. In this translation, these marks relay specific information that not only describes the subject, but also transform into a medium that embraces the abstraction of line and imagery. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

Saaraliisa Ylitalo, Washington D.C.

5 Sorrows 5 vertical accordion books, joomchi-felted mulberry paper, silk carrier rods, silk thread, waxed linen. Joomchi (felted layers of paper), stitching, mixed media I have been working in the textile arts for more than 40 years. My work has always been a reflection of events, real and physiological in my life or in the lives of those around me. So in that way my work has been about the natural weather in our lives between turbulent and calm times. Between hope and despair. Really about our broken places and how we deal with them. In my current work I use circles. There is a temporary inside emptiness and an outside chaos to my life now, and these accordion books tell that story. Photography: Courtesy of the artist

The Book as Art: Flight Edition An exhibition presented by the Department of Aviation Art Program October 2018 – October 2019 The Airport Art Program develops and integrates art, exhibits and performances into the fabric of the ATL environment for the benefit of passengers and employees. For more information about this exhibition or the Airport Art Program, contact 404/382-2250 or visit: ATL.com. #ATLAirportArt @ATLairport