People Reading

The Spartanburg Art Museum in South Carolina recently opened the doors to its' new location with the powerful exhibition People Reading : Selections From the Collection of Donald and Patricia Oresman. The exhibit is perfectly curated by Thomas L. Johnson, librarian emeritus at the University of South Carolina, and consists of 60 works from the vast Oresman collection which consists of over 2,000 images.

Maurice Askenazy PIONEER, 1929 Ink and pencil on paper 2 15/16 x 3 11/16

We see people reading books, we see people reading newspapers, we see people reading alone and in groups, in bed and in the bath, at night and during the day, inside and out. The range and breadth of the images conveys both the power and the pain inherent in the act of reading.

Will Barnett SWING AT DUSK, n.d. Lithograph (edition unknown), 11 x 14 in.

In his introduction to the catalog for the exhibition Johnson mentions that one of the reasons he wanted to curate the show is because "he loves books and art" and "While I do not worship them, I do love them intrinsically-as wonderful and curious objects to be handled or images to be seen and enjoyed spontaneously-as well as for their power to communicate emotionally and intellectually at the deepest levels."

Johnson then goes on to ponder the question as to why such a collection has not be duplicated in the public domain. He offers us this:

"Why not establish a collection in the public domain that brings together these two themes and elements-these twin necessities of reading and artistic expression-in the phenomenal way in which the Oresman's have accomplished this in the private realm?"

Ah, the "twin necessities" for the masses - what a beautiful thought.

View the exhibit online

Catalog available here

Top image: Catalog cover Leo Meissner WAR BULLETINS, c. 1942. Wood engraving (edition of 50) 6 1/8 x 11 1⁄4 in.

Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books

Wessel & Lieberman Booksellers is pleased to announce an exhibition of the work of Barbara Hodgson. “Barbara Hodgson: Other Ways of Seeing Books” will run from March 6 through April 30, 2008. Please join us for a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 3, from 6-8pm.

Barbara Hodgson is a writer, book designer and photographer based in Vancouver, BC. She is the author and designer of four acclaimed illustrated novels; each a combination of good storytelling augmented with archival photographs, antique postcards, and rare engravings. Her non-fiction work includes her recent publication, Trading in Memories, 2007, an illustrated diary of her journeys as a world traveler, picking up bits and pieces of discarded material culture.

Her work has also been published in fine press limited editions by Heavenly Monkey Press in Vancouver, BC. Out of print titles include Good & Evil in the Garden and Expressed: Ten Philatelic Fictions. Her most recent work is The Temperamental Rose and Other Ways of Seeing Color, 2007, with noted Seattle bookbinder Claudia Cohen. This collaboration began during their first meeting in the summer of 2006, when they discovered mutual passions for color wheels and other systems for charting and codifying colors.

For the present exhibition, Hodgson has created a keepsake entitled The Temperamental Rose: An Experiment with Light. Each copy of the pamphlet 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. The keepsake is available in a signed, limited edition of sixty copies.

The Book Gods of Contemporary Chinese Art

"Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles"

Liu Yi (1017-1086)

Xu Bing. Book From the Sky
1987-91
Mixed media installation / Hand-printed books and scrolls printed from blocks inscribed with ''false'' characters.

Huang Yong Ping The History of Chinese Painting and a Concise History of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing Machine for Two Minutes
1987-1993
Chinese teabox, paper pulp, glass

In the art world there are few genres as hot as Contemporary Chinese Art and in Chinese Contemporary Art there are few objects as important as the book.

The quote above from Liu Yi begins Wu Hung's introduction to the catalog of the seminal exhibition Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art which he curated for the China Institute and which is currently on view, albeit in a condensed form at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.
through December 2.

Hung, who also curates the exhibit, is the Harriet H. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages & Civilizations at the University of Chicago, and his introduction is a must read for those who want to understand the importance of the book in Chinese cultural.

The exhibit is a who's who of Contemporary Chinese Art featuring over 20 artists, and their "book-related experiments," including work by Xu Bing, Cai Guo-Qiang, Huang Yong Ping, Song Dong, Hong Hao and Wenda Gu.

Many pieces are inspired by the traditional book materials like calligraphy, paper and ink, all essential materials of Chinese culture, and many are reactions to the power and potential danger inherent in the book object.

There is simply too much great stuff here to cover in one post. The two images included here are considered masterworks of the genre. Both began in the late 1980's as Cultural Revolution was fading. Neither artist still lives in China.

The curator Wu Hung will be a giving a talk at the Seattle Asian Art Museum this Thursday.
If you live anywhere near Seattle the exhibit is worth a visit.

Video of Wu Hung's talk about the exhibit at the China Institute
Review of exhibition by Bridget L Goodbody in the New York Times; Defending the Printed Page as the New China Stirred

Book Patrol will feature other artists whose book works appear in the exhibition in the coming weeks

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.

Pike Place Market Turns 100

Mark Tobey, The World of a Market

Pike Place Market in Seattle is 100 years old. Events are scheduled all summer long, culminating in the Centennial Celebration on August 17. Currently there are exhibitions on display at the Seattle Public Library and at the University of Washington Libraries:

"100 Years of The Pike Place Market: Fresh Produce, Flying Fish, Friendly Faces."

This exhibition is at the Seattle Public Library, Seattle Room, through October 6. The exhibit explores the history of the Market using materials from the Library's Special Collections, artifacts from the Museum of History and Industry and private donors, as well as photographs from several collections, notably the Seattle Municipal Archives, Hugh and Jane Ferguson Seattle Room, and the Museum of History and Industry. (Image: Seattle Public Library, Seattle Room)

"Our Market Century: 1907-2007."

This exhibition is at the University of Washington, Suzzallo Library, through August 24. Using resources from the Special Collections Division of the UW Libraries, the exhibit chronicles the history of the Market from its beginning to the present. Highlights include the early history, the role of the immigrant community in the development, and the succesful campaign to save the Market from urban renewal. (Photo: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections)

The Pike Place Market is beloved for its historical and cultural value to Seattle. It opened with a few farmers' wagons in August, 1907, and is the oldest continually-operated public farmer's market in the country. Millions of tourists and locals frequent the market, popular for the fishmongers, fresh produce, and flower stalls. It is a city institution and national attraction.

But the Market history has not always been smooth. In 1942, more than two-thirds of the stalls were owned by Japanese-Americans. These stalls were confiscated and sold as a result of the World War II Japanese internment order. In the 1960s, the market was almost demolished by a proposal supported by Seattle government and business leaders. Fortunately, with strong community support, an initiative was passed in 1971 that created a historic preservation zone. (Another threat to the Market was a possible financial foreclosure in the 1980s.) Today, the Market is a 9-acre complex of buildings, vendors, merchants, restaurants, street performers, and residents.

Among the individuals who provided leadership during the Pike Place Market's critical junction in the 60s were Victor Steinbrueck and Mark Tobey. As part of the support for the Market, the University of Washington Press published Tobey's The World of a Market and later Steinbrueck's Market Sketchbook. Steinbrueck, a local architect and professor, was the leading activist in stopping the urban renewal plans to destroy the market. (His son, Peter, led the fight in the 1980s to save it from financial foreclosure.) He was also known for his loose ink sketches, used to describe urban scenes. Artist Mark Tobey, an internationally-recognized artist and founder of the Northwest School, traveled through the market neighborhood making art. (Image: Victor Steinbreuck, Seattle Cityscape.)

A good history of the Market , written by Pulitzer prize-winning author William Dietrich, can be found in the Seattle Times, Pacific Northwest magazine of June 7, 2007.

"Philip Smith: Extraordinary Bindings From an Englishman"

Opening this month at the Multnomah County Library in Portland is an exhibition of the work of the pre-eminent bookbinder Philip Smith. An opening reception and illustrated lecture by Philip Smith is on May 19; the exhibition continues through July 11, 2007.

Philip Smith is one of today's most unusual and extraordinary bookbinders, often using unorthodox materials and approaches. He is a past President of Designer Bookbinders and has written and lectured extensively on bookbinding. Books include The Book: Art & Object (1982) and New Directions in Bookbinding (1974). The exhibition combines materials from public and private collections as well as from his own collection in England.

(Image of Finnegan's Wake binding from the gallery at the Society of Bookbinders.)

Side By Side. Finally

For the first time, after who knows how many thousands of years, the sacred texts of the world's three monastic faiths, Judiasm, Christianilty and Islam have been gathered together for an exhibition at the British Library.

The exhibit Sacred: Discover What We Share: The World's Greatest Collection of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Holy Books brings together the rarest sacred texts in existence.

Highlights include:
A tattered copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls and
A"Qur'an commissioned for a 14th-century Mongol ruler of modern Iran who was born a shaman, baptised a Christian, and converted first to Buddhism, then Sunni and finally Shia Islam."

There is a significant online component to the exhibit that features videos, podcasts and interactive maps. There are also 8 texts in the exhibit that are available to view using the newly released "Turning The Pages" technology

Graham Shaw, the lead curator, says of the exhibit "We were determined not to create faith zones, but to show these wonderful manuscripts side by side, and demonstrate how much we share"

Maybe one day we can all live that way.



Guardian article on the exhibit



Images:
Above: St.Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels
Below: Sultan Baybar's Qur'an from the British Library

A Passion for Word & Image: Books by Enid Mark

An exhibition celebrating the work of Philadelphia book artist Enid Mark is at the University of Washington Libraries through May 28. Founded in 1986, ELM Press publishes finely crafted limited editions that feature hand-lithography, letterpress printing, and archival hand binding.

From the begninning Mark's books were distinguished by subtle colors and shapes, each book having a unique character, blending text and image seamlessly. Mark's images dance across the page, expand to the edges and ignore the normal boundaries of "illustrated" books. Many of the items are on loan from the book artist herself.

The exhibition is at Suzzallo Library, room 102, as well as the Special Collections lobby. A talk and exhibit visit with Mark is scheduled for April 19 at 7:00pm.