Minnesota Center for Book Arts Newsletter:
Winter 2007/08

2007 WINTER BOOK: vispoeologee
AN ANTHOLOGY OF VISUAL LITERATURE

Minnesota Center for Book Arts’ nineteenth annual Winter Book, vispoeologee, is an eclectic amalgam of visual literature — a broad term for the disciplines of visual poetry, concrete poetry and post-language writing.

In the spirit of Fluxus publications, vispoeologee is a hands-on, gloves-off experience. Inside a utilitarian shell lies a rich array of colors, printing techniques, papers and visual interpretations. More than a collectible, it’s an adventure not soon to be forgotten, available in three limited editions.

The work of 27 local, national and internationally recognized visual and concrete poets was selected by editors Tom Cassidy, Scott Helmes and John Bennett. The three editors, who met via mail art, have corresponded with one another for decades. They are not only knowledgeable about the literary art form, but also practitioners with an international reputation.

Master printers Allison Chapman and Monica Edwards Larson used a variety of methods to reproduce the work, including letterpress, digital printing and relief printmaking. Binders and collaters arrived from across the artistic community, fulfilling the tradition of relying on volunteers for Winter Book’s final production. All three editions were designed and directed by MCBA Artistic Director Jeff Rathermel.

The Chapbook, numbered 1 through 225, is a 60-page, 7” x 9” hardcover volume with a multi-signature binding. Included in the chapbook are a variety of tip-ins, fold-outs, centerfolds and inserts on diverse papers: Mohawk Superfine, Niddigan, Bienfang parchment, black Bugra, and lava red Tiziano. The chapbook contains at least one work from each of the 27 Winter Book artists, as well as essays by the editors.

The Standard Edition, numbered 1 through 100 and signed by the editors, includes the Chapbook with a special relief-printed jacket, plus three supplemental folios featuring visual and audio works by three poet-artists. All Standard Edition elements are housed in a custom archival phase box with a string closure.

The Deluxe Edition, lettered A through Z and signed by the editors, contains all elements of the Standard plus much more, all housed in a black archival drop-front metal-edged box. Two additional folios and a suite of 10 prints are included, as well as four “micro archives”: a selection of one-of-a-kind “found poems” by vispoeologee artists; John M. Bennett’s Historietas Alfabeticas, 28 letterpress-printed text poems; a set of altered book cover and page “trading cards” by editor Thomas Cassidy; and an interactive do-it-yourself kit for creating your own visual poetry, including imprinted pencils, dice and workbook.

Artists included in vispoeologee:

Hartmut Andryczuk
Harriet Bart
Michael Basinski
John M. Bennett
C. Mehrl Bennett
buZ blurr
Thomas Cassidy
Wendy Collin Sorin
K.S. Ernst
Ficus
Philip Gallo
Bob Grumman
Scott Helmes
Geof Huth
Richard Kostelanetz
Jack Kronebusch
Jim Leftwich
Carlos M. Luis
Shelia E. Murphy
Rea Nikonova
Michael Peters
Marilyn R. Rosenberg
Matthew Rucker
Serge Segay
Carol Stetser
Thompson
Nico Vassilakis

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IN THE GALLERY

SITUATIONS
Opening reception Saturday, January 26; 6-9pm

MCBA continues to “break the bindings” of book arts with Situations, an exhibition of book-inspired installation art. Over a dozen artists from across the nation will be presenting site-specific, interactive, conceptual, multimedia and environmental works which defy traditional definitions. With art installed not only in the Star Tribune Gallery but also in other areas of MCBA’s facilities, Situations will create a surprising treasure hunt for visitors to the center.

For their project, artists Suzanne Skon and Carmen Gutierrez-Bolger recruited 44 artists to collaborate on a 54-"page" bookish installation using two chiropractic cabinets. Within each cabinet are 27 drawers, which Gutierrez-Bolger and Skon view as pages of a book. Using the hand as a theme (“chiro” means “hand”, and there are 27 bones in the hand), the collaborating artists each chose a word or phrase associated with the hand and depicted it three-dimensionally in one of the drawers.

Gutierrez-Bolger and Skon provided a list of themes such as “hand to hand combat,” “manipulates,” and “handle with care,” and the visual interpretations range widely in media and tone. “All you see on outside of the cabinet is the phrase,” says Gutierrez-Bolger. “You have to open the drawer to see what’s inside.” A couple of the drawers light up, she adds, and some include an audio component. A 112-page book documenting the work will be for sale in The Shop @ MCBA during the exhibition.

Another project to be included in Situations is a metaphorical grotto for artists and writers, created by Jody Winger. She will use stone to build the structure. “The reason I chose stone,” she explains, “is that the first book form was stone, whether cave walls or the ten commandments or even pottery, carved in or painted on a piece of ceramic.” She is also drawn to the way a stone, turned sideways to show sedimentary layers, reveals a history throughout time and tells a story.

Winger anticipates the structure will be four feet wide, three and a half feet deep. “I love bookmaking tools and stoneworker’s tools,” she adds, “and I’ll be using a lot of those tools in the process of creating this structure.”

Situations will allow spaces within the MCBA facility to be used in different ways than they have in the past. For example, Karen Wirth’s project is a series of “architectural interventions” within spaces often overlooked. The first will be installed for Situations, with the rest following every three or four months.

“Rather than looking at the gallery as an exhibition space,” Wirth says, “these temporary installations take advantage of architectural details exposed in the renovation of the building. While some of the most obvious details are in the Open Book common areas, they are spread throughout MCBA’s space as well: a stairway cut down its center climbing out of a vault, or the remnants of a wallpapered room above another staircase. But there are less glamorous areas as well.” It is those less glamorous areas that call out for an intervention.

Situations will remain open through April 7, 2008.

BLACK WHITE (AND READ)
Opening April 19, 2008

Black and white are complex colors with the power to lead us into deeper levels of awareness and stir our imaginations. This exhibition presents work that explores text, shadows, spaces, structures and imagery without the use of color.

ALTERED BOOKS:
What happens to a book when it outlives its purpose on the shelf?

An altered book is any book, old or new, that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art. These works of art are incredibly diverse, from adding or embellishing a page of text to completely deconstructing and transforming a book into an object that doesn’t resemble its original form at all.

MCBA has worked with the Minneapolis Public Library (MPL), Homewood
Studios and other local partners to create these coordinated exhibitions. Artists range from local youth and teens to internationally recognized artists.

MCBA hosts an exhibition of altered bookworks from teen artists, including those in our By Design program, opening January 26 in concurrence with the opening of Situations. Homewood Studios will feature altered books by local youth and families, including work created at free community workshops hosted by Homewood and MCBA.

Minneapolis Central Library is the site of three altered book exhibitions: the Cargill Hall gallery features the work of 20 artists from across the nation, curated by book arts historian and MCBA board member Dr. Betty Bright. The Atrium features a display of work by Minnesota college students, curated by book artist and printer Chip Schilling. Space 144 features a display curated by mnartists.org and Susan Hensel Gallery.

Jacqueline Rush Lee, Slice (from Volumes)

The Friends of the MPL’s People’s University program will present “Unbinding the Book: Inside Altered Books,” a curators’ talk, tour and reception, on Thursday, Feb. 7, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. This opening event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required; register online or call 612.630.6155.

Other exhibition sites include Traffic Zone Gallery and the Weisman Art Museum. For more information on all citywide altered book exhibitions and events, visit the MPL’s arts webpage.

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EVENTS

MACY’S GO READ! DAY
For Families: Sunday, February 24
11am-5pm
Mill City Museum
Celebrate the joy of reading with a day of storytelling, interactive performances, films, bookmaking and other activities to spark the imagination and creativity of children. Free and open to the public.

For Teens: Sunday, February 24
1-7:30pm
Guthrie Theater
Create comics and zines with local writers and artists! Sessions for middle schoolers (1-4 pm) and high schoolers (4:30-7:30 pm). Free bookish give-aways and free pizza! To register, call Emily Carr Moore at 612.215.2549.

CHILDISH FILMS AT THE LIBRARY
Saturday, Apr 19, 10am
Open to ages 3 and up
Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall
Make books with staff from MCBA and enjoy the movie The Adventures of Milo and Otis. Free and open to the public. More information

MCBA FAMILY DAY: RECYCLED BOOKS
Saturday, April 19
Drop-in family activities 10am-1pm
Free and open to the public!
Celebrate Earth Day with MCBA by making books from recycled materials and found objects. Construct accordion books from grocery bags and cereal boxes. Use shoelaces and twine to make Japanese stab bindings. Create a tunnel book with old calendar pages and more! A wide assortment of art scraps and materials will be provided.

BOOK ARTS ROUNDTABLES
MCBA is an arts hub where interesting, passionate, and knowledgeable people like you learn, share ideas, and get inspired. Insert yourself into the discourse by attending our Book Arts Roundtables. They’re FREE, and they take place at 7pm in MCBA’s spacious studios.

January 29: Book as Installation / Installation as Book
Special guest Karen Wirth talks about her work and the work of others in the Situations exhibition. As a sculptor and book artist, Karen is concerned with the creation of space to maximize the context and content of the work. She designed and oversaw fabrication and installation of the central staircase at Open Book in collaboration with architect Garth Rockcastle.

February 19: Jerome Book Arts Fellows
Join the 2007-08 Jerome Book Arts Fellows as they discuss past and
current work. Book artists selected for the fellowship include Brian Aldrich, Sarah Peters, Katya Reka, and the team of CB Sherlock and Regula Russelle.

March 25: What Is a Miniature Book?
(And How Do You Find One If You Drop It?)
Since 1976, visiting artists Peter and Donna Thomas have worked
collaboratively and individually to create very small books, and have
received three national book awards from the Miniature Book Society
for their books and for their work in promoting miniature bookmaking.

April 15: Spring Salon
Bring in new work or work in progress for dialogue and feedback from fellow artists in this non-intimidating salon for artists at all levels. See other artists’ work; share techniques, tips and tricks; and get new inspiration for future projects.

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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: Ellen Ferrari

Among the wide variety of workshops taught at Minnesota Center for Book Arts are those for preschoolers. Led by Ellen Ferrari, these workshops give children three to five years old the chance to be a papermaker, bookbinder and printer. And not just for pretend.

Ferrari exudes the same level of energy and enthusiasm as the pint-sized artists she guides through hands-on activities. Although she arrives for a workshop thoroughly prepared, she knows to expect surprises. “You think they’re all going down the same path, and then one of them veers to the left,” says Ferrari. “You have to be on your toes. You never know what they’re going to say. Sometimes I have to relax as a teacher and learn from them.”

One of the many attributes of preschoolers that Ellen enjoys is their willingness to jump right in. “For preschoolers, everything is new. The world is still a giant oyster.”

Preschoolers intuitively understand book arts because they know what a book is. “They have a favorite book,” explains Ferrari. “They have experienced being read to, or they’ve gone to the library for story time. The fact that they’re going to make a book makes perfect sense to them.” Interestingly, preschoolers also understand that when they make a book, they can put anything they want in it. “They really get that they’re the same as book authors,” says Ferrari. Even when she shows the children artists’ books, they’re not put off by the fact that the book doesn’t have the classic hard cover. “They think the books are funny. They say things like, ‘Oh, that Richard, he really has a good idea.’ They have no problems seeing themselves as artists, too.”

When the children arrive at MCBA, they see artists working on projects in the studios. “The artists working at MCBA are so supportive of the kids,” says Ferrari. “For the preschoolers, working in an artist space validates what they are doing.” Without MCBA, Ferrari doubts if any children would have the chance to make paper, print letterpress or marble paper. Many kids enjoy making books by stapling pages together. The structures taught at MCBA, even for preschoolers, are more advanced and require more tools. Plus, at MCBA the focus is on more than just assembling a book. Children also have to put something in it.

In MCBA’s preschool workshops, adults are also active participants. The adult partner of each preschooler learns and works alongside the children. “The parents may never have taken a papermaking workshop or used a printing press, so they have permission to enter an art form at a non-threatening level,” Ferrari explains. “It’s nice that at MCBA we’ve set up the workshops to allow parents to make their own books too. It allows the parents to do some fun stuff and try something new. I’ve had parents say, ‘Can’t you offer this class just for grownups?’”

Having an adult partner with each child makes it easier for Ferrari to focus on teaching art instead of correcting behavior. In book arts there are a lot of steps that have to be followed in the correct order. However, she also appreciates knowing that the conversation about artmaking will be continued at home. Parents who have participated in the process can help the child talk about the experience with newly learned vocabulary.

With Ferrari’s skill at communicating with preschoolers, even letterpress printing is easy to understand. Her approach is to simplify. For example, she refers to a Vandercook at first a stamping machine because her students have learned about rubber-stamping and are familiar with that concept. “I talk about the ‘team approach’ of the rollers. I’ll say things like, ‘I don’t know why it’s called a bed, but it’s flat like the bed you sleep on.’ Eventually the kids understand that if we stayed up all night and printed a hundred, each piece would look the same.”

Ultimately the preschool workshops are forging a link between the child and the book as an art form. “The book becomes a very personal thing,” explains Ferrari. “The book is not just something you found – somebody made that book.” At the preschool age, children may not really know the difference between a book on a library shelf and a book in The Shop @ MCBA, but they recognize that it’s someone’s job to make books.

Ferrari gives the children in her workshops more beyond bookmaking skills and visual literacy. She also gives them a sense of mastery and self-identification as a person who creates. The children learn that making books is not just what grown-ups do. “I say to them, ‘What book are you going to decorate first, you bookmaker?’” Ferrari says. “I think we’re starting to plant seeds. We’re going to find our children in many years being comfortable in a museum because they have created, they know what it is to create.”

For Ferrari, teaching book arts to preschoolers is incredibly rewarding. “I love preschoolers! They are so fabulous. They’re so much fun, they just make you happy.”

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MCBA PROFILE

Interview with George Roberts
Founder of Homewood Studios
MCBA member since 2001
Winter Book intern in 1990

One of MCBA’s supporters and collaborators since the very beginning, George Roberts embodies the creative spirit and ambition found in so many of our artists and community partners. A former teacher at North Community High School, George is proprietor of DownStairs Press and Homewood Studios, one of the organizations behind this winter’s citywide celebration of altered books.

MCBA: When did you first get involved with Minnesota Center for Book Arts?

Roberts: I first met Jim Sitter when he was a student at Macalester and worked at the Hungry Mind bookstore. Years later, when he was opening MCBA, he told me he needed students. We had an arts magnet program [at North High] where the same students participated in the program over four years. I arranged for them to go down to MCBA every Wednesday. They worked on yearlong projects writing, printing and making books and broadsides. That was in the 1980s. During that period I also got very interested personally in book arts and began to acquire type and presses.

In 1990 I took a sabbatical from teaching at North. I attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and developed an internship with MCBA. The idea for an archive and library first surfaced when I was there, and I worked on that. I also assisted designer and printer Gaylord Schanilec with the Winter Book, “Winter Prairie Woman” by Meridal Le Sueur.

MCBA: What did you learn from being an intern on that project?

Roberts: I learned a lot about thinking like an artist, about being willing to acknowledge mistakes and fix them rather than trying to cover them up. Each chapter in the book was noted with a Roman numeral. We had printed all of Chapter Four and were printing Chapter 6 when I noticed I had made the mistake of not reversing the two digits of the Roman numeral. I caught it before we had finished printing all of the sheets, but we had spent an afternoon printing them. I showed Gaylord. He asked me, “Would you care if you noticed this mistake in the book?” I said I would, he said he would, too. He said, “Let’s go out for coffee and come back and reprint the pages.” And that’s what we did. One thing I love about letterpress is how much it makes us slow down, makes us meditative.

MCBA: How has your relationship with MCBA changed over the years?

Roberts: I’ve continued to be a member. I’ve taken classes from time to time, just to keep my hand in things. I love the exhibits and was very excited about the move to the Open Book building. In 1998 I bought a building and founded Homewood Studios with an idea that letterpress and books would be an important part of it. Since then my time has become more spoken for and sometimes it’s really hard to get over to the center for events. I’ve wanted to attend the Book Arts Roundtable discussions, but we have events at Homewood on Tuesday nights. My commitments make the times I do get over to MCBA more precious. I had met Amos Paul Kennedy many years ago, and when he came back to MCBA this year I went over to the center to see his new work.

MCBA: What do you appreciate about MCBA?

Roberts: MCBA continues to push the definition of what is a book, continues to ask that question. Whenever I have a need for book arts information there is always someone available with either knowledge or direction pointing me toward that knowledge. I also like that MCBA doesn’t get caught up in rules they absolutely have to follow.

MCBA: What was your inspiration for founding Homewood Studios?

Roberts: I walked past the building every day on my way to teach at North, and I remember when I first moved into the neighborhood it had just stopped being a deli. It was boarded and vacant. It had become a hangout for kids. I would say to my wife, it’s a beautiful building – someone should do something about it. We tried to get Artspace involved, and they were helpful, but it was a smaller building than they usually work with. Finally I said to Bev, what about an art gallery, a few studios, maybe a studio for me, I could get my presses out of the basement. After some conversations we said, let’s give that a try. So I talked with the owner and things were propitious in terms of him wanting to sell. He lowered the price considerably and we leaped in with both feet, with the vision that art is needed in the community. The arts are something we’re both committed to, as a way to empower people and help them make their own choices. We believed a community of artists in this building would introduce positive changes to the neighborhood.

MCBA: Did Homewood Studios turn out to be what you had expected?

Roberts: Everything I anticipated or dreamed about plus some wonderful unexpected parts as well. It is a place where artists come and do their work and nurture each other and create wonderful community. But people in the neighborhood have taken a certain ownership in the building. They talk about it as “our” gallery, “our” studio, even if they’ve never been in it. People are saying, “This is our good thing in this community,” like it belongs to them, and that’s powerful to me. I’m really happy about that. Also, people are always making connections with one another in the gallery, through the art they’re viewing. A third thing is the community has asked for different uses for the building: could we have a tai chi class, could I teach a writing group or quilting class. So we have other events going on, community center events that are also contributing to the health and vitality of our community. The ownership extends well beyond Bev and me, into the community, and they’re quite comfortable in saying this is what we ought to do here.

MCBA: What are the challenges of running a small organization like Homewood Studios? Are you a nonprofit and do you rely on foundation grants?

Roberts: We are a “for break even.” We mortgaged our house to buy this building. I don’t’ get a salary here and I don’t charge commission for artwork sold. I believe all money made should go to the artists. Rentals set up for artists studios and use of gallery is what supports this building. Every year it pretty much happens that we come within $50 to $100 with expenses and income balancing out. Taxes keep going up, so I have to raise studio rent. The issue becomes a political one. Will studios cost more than the local emerging young artists can afford? But so far it’s working. We’re able with this income structure to schedule two or three shows a year that we underwrite, for example for schools or a local deserving artist. If we have extra income, that’s how we spend it.

MCBA: Homewood Studios is currently collaborating with MCBA and the Minneapolis Public Library on a series of altered books exhibitions and workshops throughout Minneapolis. What is it like to collaborate with these institutions?

Roberts: It makes me happy, of course. It makes me hopeful about those large institutions, that they’re not as big and unwieldy as one might think. There’s room for a small neighborhood organization to play a role.

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NEW FACES AT MCBA

Aki Shibata
Youth Education Associate
Aki is a recent graduate from College of Visual Arts with a degree in photography, and has been making artist books with her photographic work. She has taught visual art in residence at Perpich Center for Arts Education and several local arts magnet elementary schools.

Sara R. Parr
Studio Technician
Sara received her BFA in Print, Paper, Book from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in December 2007. In addition to her Studio Technician duties, she is also a teaching assistant for MCAD Continuing Studies and an aspiring book artist whose work was recently added to
the University of Washington’s special collections library.

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