The exhibit Bookish examines the
status of books in this technological age. The proliferation of new technology has
prompted artists to reexamine the book as an object and as a symbol of knowledge. Bookish
explores two distinct artistic approaches to the book: the continuing interest in
the creation of hand-crafted unique books; and the use of the book's image or content as a
formal or symbolic element within a sculpture. The exhibit features hand-crafted
books and prints and unique sculpture created from, or in the image of, books by artists
Byron Clercx and Toni Matlock Taylor
The First Thing About Rocks is that They
Are Old
Text by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1987
A component of Bookish, an exhibition
entitled Like Frost on A Window -- The Beauty of the Written Word
celebrates the book as a unique and precious object. This traveling exhibition,
which was curated by Visual Arts Resources, Eugene, Oregon and sponsored in Montana by the
Montana Art Gallery Directors Association, features hand-printed letterpress broadsides
that beautifully illuminate poetry and prose selections by well-known writers.
Though subject matter and style vary, each piece was chosen for its evocative presentation
of the rich beauty found in the natural world. Most pieces were printed using
manually operated letterpresses, a technique that has changed little since the Middle
Ages. Many of the prints result from collaborations between printer and artists.
Bookish also features
innovative sculptures by Byron Clercx and Toni Matlock Taylor. Byron Clercx's
waggish, pun-laden sculptures present a lively contrast to the traditional codex book
format. In some of his sculptures, Clercx uses books as raw materials, shredding,
laminating, sawing or soaking texts to create artworks in which the presence of the
original book is both concealed and revealed. In other sculptures, Clercx shapes the
image of the book out of unusual materials, such as soap, rubber, and salt. In
Clercx's artworks , the book is rendered unreadable and functions as a symbol of the
possibility of knowledge, rather than a transmitter of specific information. Like
Byron Clercx,, Toni Matlock Taylor's book-based sculptures defy the notion of the book as
a precious object to be handled with care. Interested in the natural processes of
growth and decay, Taylor intentionally weathers the papers used in her sculptures.
Inside Out, 1995, Drawing on Wood
Each page 5 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 1/2 inches
by Toni Matlock Taylor
The alterations that the viewer makes to the artwork --
the deterioration of the pages due to handling and the changes in the sequence of the
pages -- are an important part of Taylor's exploration of the dynamic interaction between
objects, human intervention and nature |
