Anna Carll, Chattanooga, “WEAVE (Live),” text is desktop published with original sandpaper weavings; cover is hand painted plywood with gold and coper leaf; Coptic binding.
Maria Epes, Asheville, NC, “From Fruit to Flower,” monotype with chine colle of handmade okra paper, Xerox transfer, relief printing.
Heather Allen Hietala, Asheville, NC, “Revival,” upcycled discarded library book, mat board, bamboo, thread, milk paint, 24k gold leaf.
Michelle Kimbrell, Chattanooga, “Passing Time,” mixed media print made of paper and thread.
The Open Press – a book arts, letterpress and printmaking cooperative in Chattanooga – is partnering with the Chattanooga Public Library on an exhibition of handmade books and prints from May 16 through June 28. The opening of the exhibition coincides with the second annual Chattanooga Zine Fest and will be on view on the library’s fourth floor. There will be a reception for the exhibition – open to the public – on Thursday, May 21, from 6:00-7:30 p.m.
The exhibition is entitled Renaissance, which translates literally as “rebirth.” The artists in the exhibit look at this theme from a number of angles and explore rebirth in terms of nature, personal reexamination or the historical period of the Italian Renaissance. The styles they use are equally diverse.
Contemporary artists’ books can embrace a wide range of forms. Some artists use a more traditional form of a bound book, as in Anna Carll’s book “WEAVE (Live),” which incorporates sandpaper strips woven into the pages to “represent the seven stages of life from infancy to elder.” Others go further afield, as in Heather Heitala’s “Revival” which looks more like a brush, with its “bristles” of recycled library books.
The top represents “the revival of forgotten ideas from antiquity and new ideas, this openness is contrasted with the rigidity of the church.”
The prints in the exhibition include a variety of styles including aquatint, drypoint, etching, lithography, monotype and woodcut. Marie Epes creates a one of a kind monotype, printed on paper made from the okra in her garden. Her print “From Fruit to Flower” represents the metamorphosis of the okra plant from beautiful flower to okra pod. Michelle Kimbrell’s “Passing Time” uses embossed flowers and thread to deal with the ideas of the passage of time and the ebb and flow of life.
Renaissance includes almost 40 works by artists from Chattanooga, Asheville, NC and Raleigh NC. It is a collaborative project of The Open Press (and its affiliate, Book Arts @ The Open Press) in Chattanooga, Book and Print Arts Collaborative in Asheville, NC, and the Triangle Book Arts Collaborative in Raleigh NC.
“The “Renaissance” exhibit offers the perfect opportunity for collaboration between The Open Press and the Chattanooga Public Library,” says Ellen Simak, Co-Director, Book Arts @ The Open Press. “This exhibit offers a new way to think about books and how they can embody the ideas they contain.”