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‘feature artist book of the week’ Category

  1. Book Artist of the Month: Sarah McDermott

    March 4, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    birkensnake1-sarahmcdermott

    Sarah McDermott works in collaboration with friends Joanna Ruocco and Brian Conn to design and screenprint covers for their experimental fiction journal Birkensnake. Each issue is “irregularly published and imperfectly bound” in editions of about 300. 

    birkensnake2-sarahmcdermott

    left: Issue no. 2 | right: Issue no. 3

    Birkensnake 2 has a 3-color screenprint design on flocked paper with the center scorched with a blowtorch and bound in a long stitch structure. Birkensnake 3 has a 3-color design screenprinted on recycled chipboard boxes and bound with a wraparound cover. 

    Unfortunately, all of the print issues are sold out, but Birkensnake can be read digitally through their website. The next issue is set to publish this summer, edited by seven pairs of strangers, that is until they signed on to complete Birkensnake 6.

  2. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 25, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    stardeath1-diannafrid

    In 1572, astronomer and alchemist Tycho Brahe observed an incredibly bright star within the Cassiopeia constellation. A few months later the star disappears and Brahe publishes a small book in 1573, coining the phrase nova for a new star. We now understand this term as a supernova or the death of star. In 2009, Dianna Frid created this artist book Stardeath out of canvas and silk. The geometric layout of each page is embroidered with floss, additional details are added with aluminum foil and cellophane.

    stardeath2-diannafrid stardeath4-diannafrid stardeath6-diannafrid stardeath7-diannafrid

  3. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 18, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    Meander and Convergence

    In 2007, Dianna Frid created Meander and Convergence using canvas and silk with hints of thread and foil. Imagery of rivers and staircases recur throughout Dianna’s work as symbols of time, cycles and finitude. 

    Meander and Convergence Meander and Convergence Meander and Convergence

    Below you can see the similarities between Meander and Convergence and The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice. Both artist books were constructed as an accordion structure and therefore the entire content can easily be seen at once. Each book also includes an embroidered image of a spiral staircase.

    openriver-diannafrid

    top: Meander and Convergence
    bottom: The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice

    staircase-diannafrid

    left: Meander and Convergence
    right: The Same River Twice, The Same River Twice

    The staircase as a symbol has also appeared in Dianna’s sculptural and installation work.

    timeanddistance-diannafrid

    Installation view and detail of Time and Distance

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    Bent

  4. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 11, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    floydcollins_diannafrid

    Dianna Frid found inspiration in the tragic story of celebrated cave explorer Floyd Collins and in 1998 she constructed this memorializing embroidered cloth book. Using a heat transfer technique, Dianna also included a found image of Floyd Collins. This is one of Dianna’s first fabric books to use found imagery becoming a pivotal point in her approach to narration. 

    I asked Dianna to include a few words in regards to the concept behind Floyd Collins, Cave Explorer.
    It is, in essence, a narrative book that shows you, not only tells you, what happened to this minor historical figure from Kentucky in the 1920’s. As such, it is an exploration of the potential of the form to use a sequential progression of layers to achieve narrative coherence that echo the story. This happens again in Leak, for example, and in Reversal, although both of those books are comprised by words only. In Floyd Collins… each layer is visible at once when you first open the book because there is a large hole on each page. The hole gets smaller as the pages progress, and they eventually bury Floyd Collins (his photograph).

    The story of Floyd Collins is compelling on many fronts, not only because of the ironic tragedy it exemplifies. In the history of American journalism, he became the first ordinary person who rose to celebrity due to a tragedy: he got stuck and died while he was trying to explore an alternative entrance to the larger network of caves that comprise Mammoth Cave. Floyd Collins was an adventurer-explorer, and he was looking for “more.” I found out about his story—or, more aptly his story found me—while I was perusing a textbook on Physical Geography. I was struck that a scientific book with the mission of teaching us about the earth’s layers, volcanoes, and rock formations included this brief vignette of an unknown, illiterate farmer. I was assailed by the interlude. The stitched words of the artist’s book are sourced from the textbook, and I, of course, give attribution to the authors of the textbook in the colophon. 

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  5. Book Artist of the Month: Dianna Frid

    February 4, 2013 by Erin Fletcher

    justwaitandsee_diannafrid1

    The artist book Just Wait and See was my first exposure to Dianna Frid’s work, which is housed in the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The book is constructed with cloth and thread with images applied through heat transfer. The book was always a favorite of mine to view each time I visited the JFABC. Although I anticipated the outcome of the gun shooter, it never halted my interaction with the book.

    justwaitandsee_diannafrid2

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  • My name is Erin Fletcher, owner and bookbinder of Herringbone Bindery in Boston. Flash of the Hand is a space where I share my process and inspirations.
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