Inge Bruggeman: Deposits
Inge Bruggeman: Deposits an installation of bookworks February 1 - March 10, 2019 Reception for the artist Saturday, February 2 5:00 - 7:30 pm Cover Image: Deposits, (detail) (part of the Active Reading Series), mixed media artist book installation including sound element and ladder, variable dimension, 2017, artist book is letterpress printed in an edition of 15 and measures 3.5 x 13 x 2.5� (closed) Back Cover Image: Tensive Language, (detail), stacks of torn letterpress printed pages with metal type, 9 x 8.5 x 6�, 2018
Every second year since 2007, Seager Gray Gallery has been honored to be part of the Codex Book Fair and Symposium, bringing together the best of the best book artists and fine press printers from around the world to share their work, explore new and old concepts, and to start an on-going conversation about the fate and future of the book as an essential art form. The night before the fair, it has been our tradition to invite an artist to do an installation in the gallery. This year we are pleased to have Inge Bruggeman’s exhibition, Deposits, which opens on Saturday, February 2 from 5:00 to 7:30. Inge Bruggeman’s work revolves around the idea of the book — the book as object, artifact and cultural icon. She is interested in the act of creative publishing and the diverse materials and approaches this has taken across cultures and across time. She is particularly focused on the evolution of the book & publication arts in a post-digital age. The book continues to be an inherently interdisciplinary, interactive, and mixed media environment to explore — one that holds a powerful history of free speech, creative expression, and the democratic multiple at its heart. Inge makes artist books, fine press publications, prints, and other text-based art that investigates our personal and collective relationship to the shifting role of the book, print media and text in our world today. Inge has an avid interest in the history of the French livre d’artiste and the contemporary artist book in France.
Inge Bruggeman: Deposits Deposits is the second in a series of artist book projects made for active reading. The books in this series are meant as artifacts of experiential reading, while videos preserve the events when not installed. This series will culminate as a group of works in an active reading room. Deposits is a book meant to be read while ascending a ladder. The text is a collection of memories that are embedded in a kind of geological strata. The book was printed as part of a residency at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in 2016 and completed in 2018. It was also supported by a Scholarly and Creative Activities Grant from the University of Reno. When installed the looping sound element is set low to lure the reader/ viewer up the ladder, closer to the voice.
Deposits
mixed media artist book installation including sound element and ladder, variable dimension, 2017 artist book is letterpress printed in an edition of 15 and measures 3.5 x 13 x 2.5� (closed)
Deposits
mixed media artist book, 2017 artist book is letterpress printed in an edition of 15 and measures 3.5 x 13 x 2.5� (closed)
The Quickest Forever This project was initially inspired by the life and work of Orra White Hitchcock (1796-1863), one of America’s earliest women botanical and scientific illustrators and artists. The book became a meditation on the passage of time, both geologic time and individual time. It also draws a connection to the book as a kind of geological artifact in itself. It is an object that represents the passage of time through the turning of pages, and within it our stories and narratives have accumulated over the centuries. The short narrative in the book is printed from hand-set metal type and designed to be read as image captions over a series of pages, and through gaps in time that the material and space of the book provide. The smooth white sheets are interspersed with textured landscapes suggesting a trajectory through the book as well as a journey over space and time. The simple, poetic narrative is broken up with stenciled text imagery representing the accumulation of verbal deposits and the somewhat fallible nature of words to truly capture our experiences. Black thread also plays a prominent place in the visual narrative of the book. Thread is knotted, braided, and looped to create imagery that might reflect something done to calculate, control, or otherwise capture the passage of time. This imagery was inspired by the khipu, or knotted recording devices, developed during the Inca Empire.
The Quickest Forever
mixed media artist book – letterpress printing with colored pencil, pen, and thread with printed fabric bag, edition of 35, 10.25 x 6 x .75� (closed), 2017
Tensive Language 1-5, stacks of torn letterpress printed pages with metal type, 9 x 8.5 x 6�, 2018
Tensive Language
This series of sculptures is made of the same repeated page printed on Bruggeman’s Heidelberg Windmill press. It is a page from Semantics: The Nature of Words and Their Meanings published in 1941. Bruggeman did an earlier piece in an exhibition titled The Possibility of Being Fully Rewritten that had large towering stacks of prints that people could take away. She then became more interested in the edges of the sheets than what was printed on the surface — how the torn edges looked like land formations. This theme resurfaces with this work and her recent move to Reno, Nevada and being influenced by the natural environment there. “Tensive Language with the metal type embedded/frozen in the geological strata of pages,” says Bruggeman, “talks about the rigidity of language. Although language can be beautifully descriptive and imaginative, there is a side to it that is darker… names and naming can lead to stereotyping and actually stop our powers of imagination and description. If we know a name for something, we tend to think we understand it and stop there instead of investigating further or finding other ways of defining and describing.” The individually printed pages are torn down by hand and then the back edges are glued as a perfect bound book would be.
Deposits unique artist book with pen and gouache, 6.5 x 7 x .75� (closed), 2016
Words & Rocks unique artist book with pen and gouache, 6.5 x 7 x .75� (closed), 2016
Text Strata
These visual poems are stratified words settling into each other like layers of rock, a study in compression of surfaces and meaning related to her explorations in The Quickest Forever. Three of the four are pictured.
Text Strata: Studies 1-4 pen drawings with pin holes, 20 x 16�, 2016
Earth Strata
Earth Strata are pencil drawings without text showing various representations of the arrangements of layers in the geology of the Earth again related to the imagery in her artist’s book The Quickest Forever.
Earth Strata: Fig. 1-5 pencil drawings, 20 x 16�, 2016
A Certain Impression letterpress print from hand-set metal type, edition of 3
A Certain Impression In the work A Certain Impression, Bruggeman concerns herself with the question of ink on paper (as well as books and other print media). Ink on paper was the dominant medium for so long and especially the certainty and solidity of letterpress printing, impressed into a sheet of paper. “It feels solid and like something you can trust,” says Bruggeman, “I made it for a solo exhibition called “Where do I put it if not on paper?” and it connected to Derrida’s book Paper Machine. I think the piece also works more broadly speaking about knowledge in general. We think we know where we are, we’ve defined our world, but something always comes up to pull the rug out from underneath us. The paper is crumpled, more because it has turned into a thrown away item, something less cared about or relevant…something more fallible.”
IN G E B R U G G EM AN ( ab b r e vi ate d C V ) EDUC ATION 1994 1991 1990
MFA, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Book Arts BA, University of California, Santa Barbara French Literature Certificate of studies, La Sorbonne, Paris, France, French language and culture
TE ACH ING 2014-Now 2012-2014 2011-2012 2000-2011 2006-2008 1998-2000 1996-2000 1994-1996
Assistant Professor & Area Head of Book & Publication Arts, and Director of the Black Rock Press, UNR Adjunct Core Faculty in Book Arts/Print, Fibers & General Studies, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland Lecturer, Graduate Program, Interdisciplinary Arts Dept., Columbia College Chicago, IL Adjunct Core Faculty in Book Arts/Print & General Studies, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland - also served 1 year as Interim Dept. Head & Asst. Prof. of Book Arts/Print 2008-2009 - and 1 year as Interim Asst. Prof. in Book Arts/Print 2000-2001 Adjunct Faculty in Printmaking, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon Lecturer in the College of Letters & Sciences Art Dept., Print Media, University of CA, Santa Barbara Lecturer and Advisor in the College of Creative Studies, Book Arts, Univ. of CA, Santa Barbara Instructor, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis
SO L O EXHIB ITION S 2019 2019 2018 2016 2013 2013 2011 2010 2008 2005 2000
Inge Bruggeman, Deposits, Seager/Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA Deposits: Artist’s Books and Artifacts by Inge Bruggeman, New York Center for Book Arts, New York, NY Deposits: Artist’s Books and Artifacts by Inge Bruggeman, Oats Park Art Center, Fallon, NV Active Reading: New Artist Book by Inge Bruggeman, The Holland Project, Reno, NV Where do I put it if not on paper? Works by Inge Bruggeman, Portland City College Cascade Campus, Portland, OR Recent Works: Inge Bruggeman, Preus Library Gallery, Luther College, Decorah, IA Inge Bruggeman & INK-A! Press: Artist, Printer, Publisher, Collins Gallery, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR Inge Bruggeman: The Possibility of Being Fully Rewritten – or 5 Ways to Enter (or Exit) the Book, Marylhurst Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR Inge Bruggeman: A Selection of Fine Press Artist’s Books, Rare Book Room, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR etc: New Work from Inge Bruggeman, NINE Gallery, Portland, OR Based on the Book: New Prints & Print Objects, Artworks/Bookarts, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
TWO PER S ON & S MA L L G R O U P E X H I BI T I O N S 2018 An Idea of One’s Own: Postconceptual Women Artists, Boreas Fine Art, Chicago, IL 2015 Common Denominators: An Invitational of 5 Book Artists, Form + Content Gallery, Minneapolis, MN 2010 Form & Verse: Inge Bruggeman & Barbara Muriello, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA G R OUP EXHIB ITIO N S - I N T E R N AT I O N A L 2018 Délires de Livres, La Galerie Ecu de France, Viroflay, France 2017 Works from the Jack Ginsberg Collection, University of Johannesburg, South Africa 2015 The Art of the Book, Galerie Handwerk, München, Germany 2014 LIA Libro de Artista, Laboratorio de Arte Variedades, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 2012-2013 Vista Sans Wood Type Project, Belfast Print Workshop, Belfast, Ireland, also: Yale University Arts Library Special Collections Gallery, New Haven, CT, also travelling to Philadelphia, PA and New York City
2013 2012 2011 2010 2008 2007 2007 2006 2006 2003 2003 2003 2002
One of A Kind: Unique Artists’ Books, Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada HP Garcia Gallery, NYC (2011) and Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, MA (2011) Unbound – An Exhibition in 3 Chapters, Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Délires de Livres, Collégiale Saint André, Chartres, France Summer Exhibition 2010, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England Rencontres Internationales, Atelier Vis-à Vis, Marseille, France Text, Form, Meaning, Concourse Gallery, Emily Carr Institute of Art, Vancouver BC, Canada Black/White [and Read]: UWE Bristol School of Creative Arts, Bristol, United Kingdom Nuova Consonanza: Libri di artista, American Academy, Rome, Italy Artist’s Books, Lönnström Art Museum, Rauma, Finland The Art of the Book ‘03, York Quay Gallery A, Toronto, Canada The World of Paper, Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile NW Print Council: 50 Works, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia Sock & Kiss: A Letterpress Portfolio, Palazzo Ferritti, Cortona, Italy, also:Center for Book Arts, NYC
SE L EC TED G R OU P E X H I B I T I O N S - N AT I O N A L - IN V ITAT ION A L 2018 The Space Between curated by Eilleen Wallace, Beatrice M. Haggerty Gallery, University of Dallas, TX 2017 All That Remains is Nowhere: a Sampling of 21st Century Book Arts, curated by Margot Ecke, Lyndon House Art Gallery, Athens, GA 2017 Parts of a Whole: New Work from MCBA Artists Community, Minneapolis, MN 2017 A Powerful Voice: Female Book Artists at the College of Creative Studies, UCSB Library Special Research Collections, Santa Barbara, CA 2017 CollAssemblage: Selected Works, Oats Park Art Center, Fallon, NV 2017 All In, The Holland Project, Reno, NV 2016 Metropolis: Interpretations of Urbanity, curated by Karen Kunc, Constellation Studios, Lincoln, NE 2016 The Art of the Book: curated by Donna Seager, Seager/Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA 2016 24 From 24: A Selection of Prints, curated by Kathy Kuehn, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, OR 2016 Reading with the Senses: curated by Ruth Rogers , Lunder Art Center, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA 2016 Ink + Metal + Paper, 23: curated by CC Stern Type Foundry, Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR 2016 Text and Image: curated by Katie Baldwin, Wilson Hall Gallery, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL 2015 College Book Art Association Invitational Exhibition, Scripps College Gallery, Claremont, CA 2015 About Books, Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, PIMA County Community College, Tucson, AZ 2015 Embraced: The International Community, New York Center for Book Arts, New York City 2014 From the West, Boreas Fine Art Gallery, Chicago, IL 2014 (text)ualization: words & art, North Seattle College Gallery, Seattle, WA 2013 Seductive Alchemy: Books by Artists, East and West Galleries, Texas Women’s University, Denton, TX 2013 One of a Kind IV, AC Institute, 547 W 27th St., New York City 2012 Revealed Terrain: Landscape in Contemporary Artists Books, M. Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN 2011 - 2012 Fine & Dirty Contemporary Letterpress Art, Minnesota Center for Book Arts Minneapolis, MN, also: Center for Book Arts, NYC, Scripps College, Claremont, CA, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Wisc., IL 2011 IMPRESS(ed): Contemporary Letterpress Prints, Cecille R. Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, MO 2010 Object Focus: The Book, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR 2010 Ear to the Page, Center for Book Arts, New York City 2010 Music Bo(o)x, 87FLORIDA Gallery, Washington DC 2010 Page Turner: Contemporary Artist Books, Burien Art Gallery, Burien, WA 2010 Collections as Evidence of Now, Zygote Gallery, Cleveland, OH
2010 2009 2008 2008 2008 2008 2007 2007 2007 2006 2006
Book as Medium: Holding/Withholding Text, Sesnon Art Gallery, Univ. of CA, Santa Cruz, CA Threads: Interweaving Textu[r]al Meaning, Center for Book Arts, New York City Word: A Celebration of Font and Text, Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, Portland, OR The Butterfly Effect, Leftbank Gallery/Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR Experimental Literature and the Intersection with Artist’s Books, Chicago CBPA Chicago, IL New West Coast Design: Books, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA By All Means: Artist’s Books and Objects, New American Art Union, Portland, OR Black/White [and Read]: The Center for Book Arts, NYC also: The Center for Book Arts, SF, CA Paper Cuts: The Art of Contemporary Paper, traveling show: Danville Museum of Fine Art, Danville,VA, Brigham City Museum, Brigham City, UT, Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI Bound Visions: Artists’ Books, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, Missouri Book Arts: A Survey of Approaches from the US & Abroad, The Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
A RT MU S EU M & GA L L E RY C O L L E C T I O N S At e l i e r Vi s - à -Vi s , M a r s e i ll e , Fran ce B a i n b r i d g e I s l a n d M u s e u m o f Ar t B ibl i o th e c a L i b r o r u m ap u d A r t ificem: Libr ar y for the A r tist’s Book , S yd n ey Au str alia Fogg A r t M u s e u m , H a r var d U n iv er sity, Massachu setts The G e tty Re s e ar c h I n s ti tu te , Cal ifor n ia L IA: L i b r o d e A r ti s ta, G u a d a l a jar a, Mex ico M i n n e a p o li s I n s ti tu te o f A r ts , Min n esota Ne w Yo r k C e n te r f o r Bo o k A r ts Portlan d A r t M u s e u m , O r e g o n Wa l ke r A r t M u s e u m , M i n n e a p ol is, MN SPECIAL C OL L EC T I O N S , R A R E A N D A RT I S T BOOK COLLECT ION S IN IN ST IT UT ION A L LIBRA RI ES B rit i s h L i b r ar y, L o n d o n , E n g lan d B row n U n i ve r s i ty, Pr o vi d e n c e , Rhod e Isl an d , S pecial Col l . C a l i f o r n i a Po l y te c h n i c S tate U niv er sity, Special Col l . C h i c a g o S c h o o l o f th e A r t I n s t itu te, Il l in ois – Joan F l asch A r tists’ Book s Col l ection C ol u m b i a U n i ve r s i ty, N e w Yo r k , Rar e Book & Man u scr ipt Libr ar y L i brar y o f C o n g r e s s , Wa s h i n g to n DC M i l l s C o ll e g e , C a l i f o r n i a – T h e Hel l er Room S pecial Col l ection s M t . H o ly o ke C o ll e g e Ne w Yo r k P u b l i c L i b r ar y, N e w Yor k , Rar e Book Room Ne w b e r r y L i b r a r y, C h i c a g o Re e d C o l le g e , O r e g o n – S p e c i al Col l ection s R h od e I s l a n d S c h o o l o f D e s i g n, Pr ov id en ce – S pecial Col l ection s S c ri p p s C o l le g e C l a r e m o n t, C al ifor n ia S i mo n Fr as e r U n i ve r s i ty, BC , C an ad a S mi th C o l le g e , N o r th a m p to n , Massachu setts S t a n f o r d U n i ve r s i ty, C al i f o r n i a – Rar e Book s Div ision of Special Col l ection s U n i ve r s i ty C o ll e g e , L o n d o n , E n gl an d Viri g n i a C o m m o n w e al th U n i ver sity, Doha, Qater We l l e s l e y C o l le g e , M as s ac h u s etts – T he Rar e Book Col l ection : A r tists’ Book s We s l e y a n U n i ve r s i ty O li n L i b r a r y, Con n ecticu t Ya l e U n i ve r s i ty L i b r ar y H a as A r ts Libr ar y, N ew Hav en , Con n ecticu t