Sadikichi Award Finalist /  by Alisa Banks

I am thrilled to announce having been named a finalist for the Sadikichi Award for Experimental Scent for my project History of a People for the 2024 Art and Olfaction Awards given by the Institute for Art and Olfaction. The winners of each category will be announced at the Art and Olfaction Award ceremony in Lisbon, June 7.

Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA /  by Alisa Banks

I am honored to have been one of nine book artists invited to complete a commissioned work to commemorate the grand re-opening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. My proposed work, History of a People traces African American history and culture through scent.

Each of the six bottles (or chapters) holds a custom blended scent that corresponds to the cultural landscape of selected historical periods: Roots, Journey, Arrival, Harrow, Protest,Visioning. The scents symbolize the complex layering involved in the creation of a new culture.

Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA, will be on display until October 2024. The celebration is year-long and the museum is planning several events. 

Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women /  by Alisa Banks

Inheritance is on view in the 112th Annual Exhibition: Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women, at Randolph, College in Lynchburg, VA. It is one of several on loan from the Cynthia Sears Collection at Bainbridge Museum of Art, in Washington. Ancillary to the exhibition are viewer engagement opportunities, including the repository of one-page books in the Quarantine Public Library, to which I contributed 2020, a book honoring victims of police violence. The exhibition will be on view through April 11, 2024.

In This Moment: The Book as Witness /  by Alisa Banks

History of a People, deluxe edition, closed

History of a People will be on view in In This Moment: The Book as Witness, curated by artist Julie Chen at the Environmental Design Library at UC Berkeley, January 10 – March 3, 2024.

CODEX International Book Fair /  by Alisa Banks

 Three of my books on view at the CODEX Foundation’s International Book Fair, in Oakland, February 4–7, 2024.

Emergence will be offered at The CODEX Foundation’s Art From Afar table inside the entry of the venue.

History of a People and Self will be offered at the Book/Print Artists of Color Collective Table #124.

Paper is People /  by Alisa Banks

Lineage

I’m pleased to announce that my textile work Lineage is on view in Paper Is People: Decolonizing Global Paper Cultures, at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA).

The exhibition “offers a new definition of paper­ within a global and decolonial framework, and will be on view at MCBA until August 12, 2023. A reception will be held Thursday, June 22, 7–9pm.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Additional information can be found here.

Reading Roots Essay /  by Alisa Banks

I am pleased to announce that my essay, Reading Roots, was published in the latest issue of Openings: Studies in Book Arts (Volume 5, 2022), the CBAA open access journal. In the essay, I explain how my use of unconventional materials is a link to cultural forms of expression, and why the selected materials are a component of memory, tradition, and history. Read the essay here.

Layers and Narratives /  by Alisa Banks

New work exhibited at Tarrant County College

I’m happy to announce that five of my books, including two new works, “Things I’ll MIss” and “Loci” are on view in “Layers and Narratives,” an exhibition at Tarrant County College, Southeast Campus from October 17 to December 2. This is the first in a long while that I’ve exhibited work locally and I’m excited to attend the opening tomorrow, Thursday, October 20 from 204pm. More information here.

Changing the Conversation /  by Alisa Banks

I am honored to be the featured speaker for Changing the Conversation, and exhibition of “artist books, zines, and broadsides (that seek) to encourage conversations that challenge long held beliefs, ideals, and ideas facing our society. The exhibit will cover multiple topics that will leave each reader with an expanded knowledge of the social justice issues we face in our past, present, and future.”

In my talk Political Bodies: Agency and Intention, I will spotlight my book Wrongful Termination, which is included in the exhibition, the incidents that inspired it, a few other works and some thoughts on changing the conversation.

The talk is scheduled for Thursday, August 25, 2022 at 4pm Pacific Time. The event is free, but registration is required. Click here to register. Hope you see you there!

August at Women's Studio Workshop /  by Alisa Banks

There are still a few spots left in The Book Art Dummy, a week-long workshop that I’ll be facilitating at the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) in Rosendale, New York, August 22 - 26. 

The workshop will focus on the development of original content to create a dummy for a book arts project. A dummy is a mock-up or model of a book, and is created when a significant portion of the project has been resolved. The dummy functions as a general model for the final project. 

Participants will identify a project through a series of exercises, and create their book dummy during the workshop. We’ll move from ideation and writing, and then to design, budgeting, and building. Attendees can expect to leave the workshop with at least one project identified, a corresponding dummy and budget projection, and a notebook of ideas, writing exercises, and handouts.

Rosendale is located in the Hudson Valley, and I am certainly looking forward to taking a break from our successive days of 100+ degree Texas heat! I hope to see you there.

Learn more about the workshop and WSW here.

Emergence In "Boundless" /  by Alisa Banks

Emergence is one of the works featured in Boundless, an exhibition that “…celebrates the visionary ideals of the artist’s book which often challenge, in the best of ways, our preconceived notions of what a book can be. Boundless explores the vast field of artist’s books, but also the thinking of book artists. Each work reveals the mapping and laying bare of uncomfortable, surprising, or unexplored terrain.”

The exhibition is open from Mar 4 – Jun 22, 2022 at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Bainbridge Island, WA. Click here for details.