Tacit Anthologies
For this project I collect found materials and bind a book in public and then leave the book behind. In this artwork I refute the colonial, Western, (objective and quantitative), perspective of knowledge. by creating book-like objects with no traditional content – a balloon and some gingko leaves becomes a girdle book memory of a walk, a stack of camellia petals are a pamphlet sewn artifact of a windy day. This work utilizes my re-construction of Ulises Carrión, The New Art of Making Books. I reform his main thesis to my minimal definition of the essential characteristics of a book.
A book is a sequence of spaces,
perceived at different moments in time,
with a corresponding series of signs.
My set of travel binding tools
This is a book about mutual support
Cut and altered leaves found in Seattle
A balloon and Ginkgo girdle book
Cut and pamphlet bound 2017 Taiwanese newspaper found on a WA State Ferry in 2022
Found and pamphlet bound Camellia blossoms from after a wind storm
The Camellia after the wind storm
A book written by small beings
This is a book about self-care
This is a book about the mark absence makes
This is a book about family
This is a book about long life, lived in a large way
This is a strawberry leaf book pamphlet bound in the cafe of a fancy museum.
This is a Coptic stitch bound set of newspapers found and assembled on a 24 hour ferry from Rejecka to Dubrovnik, Croatia
Ghost Books
Ghost Books is an extension of Tacit Anthologies, a collaborative piece created with my students at the University of Georgia's Cortona, Italy, Study Abroad Program in fall of 2015. Books were made and left in the many cities throughout Italy that were visited by students. Books were made either from materials found on site and assembled on the spot or were crafted in the studio and all were left behind / contributed to the cities in which we traveled.
Each book was documented with a photo and the location where it was dropped was pinned as a point on the map.
