Barbara Hodgson: Trading in Memories and Other Ways of Seeing Books

In her new book Trading in Memories: Travels Through a Scavenger's Favorite Places Barbara Hodgson takes us on an unforgettable trip around the world. From the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul to an ephemera show in Portland, Oregon we get a front row seat as Hodgson works her magic unearthing relics of material cultural. As the collector knows, the pursuit, in many cases, is as fulfilling as the acquisition.

The fruit of travel is in "collecting fragments of people's material lives" says Hodgson in the introduction; in Naples it was tearing posters off the walls, in Portland it was a mugshot, in Fez El-Djedid is was an portable Arabic typewriter, in France she was on the the trail of Pierre Loti (the image above is of an authentic Japanese pagoda Loti had installed in his house).

Hodgson "believes that it is in the streets, bookstores, and markets where the city tantalizingly and coyly unveils its real past and most intimate self" and she places each journey within the perfect amount of historical context that you wish she would keep on going; one more stall, one more city. In a world increasingly bent on the disposable Hodgson proves that value remains in much of what we leave behind. Move over Madonna we have us a new Material Girl!

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An exhibit of Hodgson's work, "Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books", runs through April at Wessel & Lieberman.

The exhibit features her recently released collaboration with Claudia Cohen The Temperamental Rose and Other Ways of Seeing Color which is undoubtedly one of the most beautifully executed fine press books of 2007.

For the exhibition, Hodgson has created a limited edition keepsake, "The Temperamental Rose: An Experiment with Light". Each copy is hand-colored with a selection of lightfast and fugitive watercolors. It is designed to be exposed to the sun over a period of a year to demonstrate the effect of light on pigments.

Hodgson has also designed seven unique dust jackets for Trading Memories each containing material found during her journey.

There will be a reception for Barbara Hodgson at W&L this Thursday night from 6-8pm.

Trading In Memories website
Brief interview with Hodgson

'The Cedar Branch Chronicle' by Jocelyn Curry

Seattle: 2007. One-of-a-kind. Sculpture, mixed media; Yellow cedar, watercolor and laser images on paper. Designed specifically for its location at Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers. // For 'The Cedar Branch Chronicle', Curry collected one natural artifact and one man-made artifact during her daily walk. Without any self-imposed rules other than scale, upon returning, a watercolor 'journal-entry' composition was created from these found objects on a uniform 3-1/2 x 7" card. The thirty-one daily paintings are suspended from a dramatic 17-foot long cedar branch found on the shores of Puget Sound near the artist's home. The finished installation is essentially an alternative book-form, the paintings/pages free to be touched, and turned by the viewer, allowing for a rather kinetic experience of the author/artist's 'illustrated diary' of her daily ritual over the course of July, 2007

An artist book, The 31 Journal Pages of the Cedar Branch Chronicle: A Book of Days by Jocelyn Curry, was published in an edition of 31 copies to accompany the exhibition.

'The Cedar Branch Chronicle' is a tremendous piece and one that clearly exudes Curry's deep sense of place. The combination of the man-made found object with the natural artifact is tastefully and elegantly presented. By pairing the found with the natural Curry skillfully transforms the negative weight of the human litter that populates our natural world into a digestible form. Magically, it somehow becomes something we can live with.

It's sure nice having this hanging around the shop.

Other work from the exhibit can be seen here.

Be sure to click on top and side image to enlarge.

The Growing Bestiary of Briony Morrow-Cribbs

The "Cabinets of Curiosity" of the 16th and 17th century is the jumping off point for Morrow-Cribbs. These rooms of mythical constructs blur the boundary of fact and fiction, where the real and the imagined share the stage.

Morrow-Cribs says she "uses the mediums of print and the book arts (and occasionally ceramics) to create a graphic connection between the recognizable 'real' world and my invisible, 'fantasy' world.

Her latest project is providing 11 aquatint prints to accompany the first book publication of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's prose poem Iskandariya. The book is designed and published by Rollin Milroy at Heavenly Monkey.

Milroy says the poem offers "a perfect companion for Briony's growing bestiary of anthropomorphically jumbled creatures."

Millroy and Heavenly Monkey continue their ascent to the top of the fine press world with each book taking us on a quality journey utilizing the most creative artists, writers and book makers this region has to offer. I have yet to be disappointed.

Morrow-Cribbs, the daughter of two artists, has yet to leave her twenties so settle in, this journey is just beginning.

We are delighted to host an exhibit of the work of Briony Morrow-Cribbs to coincide with the release of Iskandariya. The exhibit runs through Halloween. For those who can't make it here is the online version.

World Book Day

April 23 is the International Day of the Book. Organized by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), this day celebrates books and reading.

This year, UNESCO wants to emphasize the vital role of books not only in relation to education, economics, cultural creation and democratic participation, but also, as stressed by Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, their “importance with regard to freedom of expression and the safeguarding and promotion of expressions of cultural diversity, which are major issues for humanity.”

Books first became connected with this date in Catalonia. Author Miguel de Cervantes died on April 23 (according to the Gregorian calendar.) In Spain, 'Don Quixote" is read on this day and the Cervantes Prize for Literature is announced by the King at the University of Alcala de Henares. The award for 2007 is Spanish poet Antonio Gamoneda. Celebrations occur throughout the world - for example, in Italy, there is a reading of 'Don Quixote' and a rountable discussion of book squandering; the Swiss Book Lobby has organized a national campaign called 'Switzerland is Reading'. In the UK and Ireland, on World Book Day a free book token is given to all school children. It can buy one of the ten specially published World Book Day books or used toward the purchase of any other book.

Chuckanut Radio Hour

All businesses regularly change and adapt. For bookselling, the Internet has brought particularly dramatic changes. Books are found and sold through bookshop websites, multi-dealer mega-sites and online auctions. Blogs, information-rich websites, and email are the common tools to communicate and connect.

Some individuals in our Northwest region have created an additional way to reach out to their local book community. In Bellingham Washington, Chuck Robinson and others have begun "The Chuckanut Radio Hour". Robinson is a past President of the American Booksellers Association and owner of Village Books, a book store, cafe, and community gathering spot. This hometown radio variety show features prominent authors and discussions, dramatic readings, and music. So far there have three shows produced at Bellingham's American Museum of Radio and Electricity, attracting between 100 and 200 people. It is broadcast on KMRE, FM 102.3. The next taping is on April 24, featuring author Sherman Alexie.

The House of Poetry

April once again brings us National Poetry Month, our yearly attempt to promote the genre to the masses or as poet Charles Bernstein frames it "promoting poetry as if it were an "easy listening".

There are events going on everywhere for everyone so contact your local library or bookstore to see what's going on in your community or check the Poetry Near You page at Poets.org

A highlight is the 15th Annual Poets House Showcase in New York. Each April Poets House puts on a show. Every poetry book published in the U.S. the previous year goes on display for the month. That's right-every one of them.

This year features over 2,000 books, CD's and DVD's from more than 500 independent, university and commercial presses.

The Poets House archives each showcase in its database, The Directory of American Poetry Books. It's free, fully-searchable and contains over 20,000 poetry titles published between 1990 and 2006. It is the most comprehensive bibliographic resource available for poetry published during that time. If you read, write or think poetry this is an essential reference.

Here are 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month
Internet archive feature: Feeling With Their Nerves: Young Poets on the Archive
NPR and National Poetry Month

Click on the image above to see this years National Poetry Month poster up close. A typographic portrait of Walt Whitman created by illustrator and graphic designer Christoph Niemann.

Also don't miss Charles Bernstein's 1999 essay "Against National Poetry Month as Such" where he responds to" promoting poetry as if it were an "easy listening" and proposes an alternative called International Anti-Poetry month".

Seattle Edible Book Festival

This Sunday, April 1, is the Seattle Annual Edible Book Festive, "Cook The Books"! The Festival is free if you bring an edible book or $5 to come see all the entries and enjoy the consumption of them at the end of the afternoon. It's an event that unites bibliophiles, book artists, and food lovers. The Festival is being held this year at 826 Seattle, 8414 Greenwood Avenue North at 1:00pm(with an edible entry) or 2:00pm (without an entry).

826 Seattle is a nonprofit tutoring and writing center to help youth, ages 6-18, with their writing skills. It is one of 6 national chapters co-founded by McSweeney's founder and author Dave Eggers.

Amazingly, the local Seattle festival is part of the International Edible Book Festival held around the world on April 1. April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event.

Dot-font Book Launch

Last evening, Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers was pleased to sponsor a reception and book launch of the newest books by award winning book designer and typographer John D. Berry - Dot-font: Talking About Design and Dot-font: Talking About Fonts (Mark Batty Publisher, 2007). The essays are a compilation of columns about design and typography that he has written since 2000.

In John Berry's words, "The purpose of design is to give clarity and form to the shapelessness of everyday life...We live in the midst of design every hour of the day." Take a look at the signage at your airport. Is it easy to find the way to your plane? Or what about the Florida ballots in the 2000 Presidential election. Did the design contribute to voter confusion? Choices of layout, size, and font have a huge impact on the effectiveness of a sign, a book, a newspaper,...or a ballot.

These books and other publications by John Berry are available at Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers where an exhibition of his book designs continues through the end of April.

Photos courtesy of Eileen Gunn.

Friends of Seattle Public Library Book Sale

The very popular Friends of Seattle Public Library Spring Book Sale is on April 21-22 at Warren G. Magnuson Park at Sand Point in Seattle. Friends members may purchase items early at the preview sale on the evening of April 20.

Most of the over 200,000 books, videos, and music are available for $1.00 (or less). There is also a section of better books and a silent auction of collectible books.

Contemporary Artists' Books: Public and Private Views

Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Book Curator at the University of Washington Libraries is the keynote presenter at the Book Club of Washington Annual Meeting, Sunday April 15 at 2:00pm, in the UW Special Collections classroom. The public is welcome.

Sandra will present modern artists' books in the academic environment and highlight the differences of the museum and the library as repositories. Significant artists' books of the last 10 yrs. will be featured, including a wide variety of materials from traditional to innovative. See "canned" books, creative bindings, modern clay tablets, books in pie plates, and a true accordion book.

Sandra has worked in Special Collections for nearly 39 years and is a renowned as a leader in the Book Arts. She writes, lectures, teaches classes, curates exhibitions, and gives workshops on topics related to the book arts, both historical and modern.

The Book Club of Washington is an organization of collectors, librarians, and dealers whose members share a common appreciation and love for the book.