The Art Of the Book

Recently, actually this past month, the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts (FCCA) had a Regional Exhibit called the Art of Books and Word.  If you click here you can see a slideshow of all of the pieces that were in the show!  I submitted two pieces and both were in the show!  I was pleased!

This is my Sun Print Journal that I created using all of my own fabrics.  All of these pieces were sun printed using Setacolor Transparent paints, purchased from Dharma Trading Co.

Back

 

Inside cover with pocket. 

One of the signature covers.

Interior pocket on signature cover!!

Back inside cover.

Below is my second entry titled Manual of Gardening.  I always have a hard time naming pieces but this time I looked carefully at the pages and papers that I used and found the title of one of the deconstructed books in the top left hand corner.  

This collage is made completely from book bits.  All of the books that I use have been purchased at library book sales, so I am rescuing them from the dump.  I am honoring them by creating art with their contents.  Several years ago I took a fabulous class with the wonderful Cathy Taylor of Ashville North Carolina.  She led us through the deconstruction of books and all of the available bits and then on to using the parts as design elements  We had such fun in that class and I took a shine to looking for the crustiest mustiest books out there- that is where many treasures lie!   The focal image of this piece is one of my own photographs that I printed on muslin and then collaged to the embossed vintage book cover.

This piece grew very organically and I used many things that I have been collecting and holding on to for a very long time!  I will be making more pieces like this!!

This exhibit ran concurrently with an invitational exhibit at the University of Mary Washington here in Fredericksburg.  Having these exhibits running at the same time was terrific for raising the awareness about hand crafted books as art and art crafted using book bits!!  I will be keeping my eyes open for future opportunities to exhibit my book work!