I appreciate the chance to view all of the works submitted to Bookends, the book as art, as it was truly an enjoyable experience viewing entries from regional and national artists. The show’s guidelines were wide open welcoming all media, but the predominance of works selected were based on the artist book as a sequential, haptic or historic experience. Visual verbal experience that maintained integrity for why and how a book was created and produced were my main consideration in selecting work. Lastly, having to recognize two sites for the exhibition, the Target Gallery and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, also guided me in selecting works that would demonstrate interesting bodies of works for both spaces.

The works were selected anonymously so it will be a further pleasure to see
whose work is reflected in the exhibition. Found and personal texts from Dickinson to a Hindi primer to an audio CD were enticing choices. A play on words, “Clothes Encounter V” and cognitive titles such as ”Mechanics of Thought” among others clearly led artists into the structure and reasoning behind bookmaking. Altered books and several works employing lamination, recycling, matches, incense burned pages spoke to the need for the changing of language in its form and content.

The artist books in this exhibition equally represent forms of letterpress,
etching, relief printing, screenprint, lithography and digital printing. This fact acknowledges the spirited community of individuals who employ the book arts as a medium based on print technologies, and it also demonstrates the health of available artist books programs in academia, public, private and non-profit art centers. Exhibited artists are no doubt a mix of mentors and students who sustain and advance the book arts movement.

In the area of mixed media, some very delightful constructs were employed, from glass to collage to magazine pages, all useful in rendering text and image in deconstructed and reconstructed manner of ways. And although we think of a book as hand-sized, in this exhibition you will find numerous and various senses of scale that extend the hand. As Marshall McLuhan says “we make our tools and in turn our tools make us”.

Congratulation to all of the artists who are featured with their work in this timely exhibition.

Helen C. Frederick

Director Emerita, Pyramid Atlantic
Professor, Art and Visual Technology Department
Director, Navigation Press, George Mason University