Feature

The Well /  by Alisa Banks

The Well, closed

The Well is a memorial to the deceased whose bodies were stolen and used for medical dissection, particularly those never recovered. My host and tour guide, IBé Crawley, mentioned that the remains of free and enslaved Africans had been discovered in a sealed refuse well during a construction project at the local medical school.

In the 19th century, Richmond was the largest slave trading port in the Upper South and not coincidentally, home to one of the oldest medical schools - the Medical College of Virginia, which would eventually become Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to holding captive and renting enslaved laborers, faculty publicly advertised ready access to cadavers for use in medical education, and routinely conducted clinical research and experimental procedures on African-Americans.

The Well, open

 The history of obtaining bodies for scientific use has a troublesome past in both the United States and Europe (and perhaps elsewhere). Those among the most vulnerable – most often the enslaved – were exploited for scientific purposes. Unclaimed bodies from hospitals, jails, and poorhouses were also collected for study, a practice that continues to this day in most states. Most troubling was the illegal practice of stealing bodies, primarily from African-American burial grounds.

Kontos Building, VCU campus

Those bodies used for scientific study are generally disposed of by cremation or burial. However, at the Medical College of Virginia, the bodies were thrown down refuse wells located on campus. In 1994, a well containing dismembered bodies mixed with discarded bottles, clothing, and animal remains was discovered during construction. University administrators gave archeologists very limited time to carefully exhume the bodies before backhoe operators pulled buckets full of remains and refuse from the site. The university then  filled and built structures over the well. It is estimated that at least an additional 10 feet of the well was not extracted before construction commenced. The gathered remains were sent to the Smithsonian Institution for analysis, however funding for testing was not provided and they sat in storage until 2011.

In 2011, a documentary filmed by VCU professor, Dr. Shawn Utsey, and a report written by biological anthropologists, Kari Bruwelheide and Douglas Owsley, brought the discovery and fate of the remains – estimates range between 45 - 55 persons, including 5 children – forward. Reconciliation efforts began with the creation of the East Marshall Street Well Project, and in 2013, the remains were returned to Richmond.

The Well is a memorial to all those who remain anonymously, and likely permanently, interred in wells on the VCU campus.

Researching this history was particularly troubling, however it was necessary in order to settle in my mind how to craft a memorial to these Ancestors – it should be silent, stately, composed, and solemn. It should most of all acknowledge their sacrifice, how they were disregarded in life and even in death, yet celebrate their humanity, and our connection to them.

I decided it should be in the form of a circle – a continuity, an encircling, a protection, a round, and a shout.  I imagined this book as a building, with the approaching visitor taking in the perforated façade encircling the structure. The façade pays homage to traditional African architectural screens and denotes absence while also allowing a peek at the structure of the book.

The screen opens to reveal both text and book structure, starting with the outermost layer - an accordion frieze frottaged from an impression of a Slave Trail marker obtained near the African Burial Ground on the front, and of plants collected from the area on the back.

The Well, edition 1, open

 The overall form of The Well is a 3-dimensional interpretation of a nsoromma, or star, an Adinkra symbol conveying watchfulness and protection. Nsoromma is a representation of the belief that we are all of the stars - connected through the divine.

And though made of paper, the surfaces are intended to have a solid presence. A metallic burnished surface, prepared with meditation and care, is juxtaposed against ultra matte surfaces.

The Well, edition 2, open

Inside the structure are varying levels provided by stacked accordions and in the center of The Well, lies blue – a color whose significance traverses time; a color rooted in knowledge, patience, and spiritual practices across the African Diaspora. The blue paper was dyed at a Yourba indigo dyeing workshop with Gasali Adyemo early last year.  I dipped the scraps – papers with history – into the vat as experiments, knowing they’d eventually be used in a project.

The Well  is a variable edition of 2.  Thank you to IBé  for sharing the story that inspired this book, and to the College Book Art Association (CBAA), for awarding this project a Member Support Grant to facilitate completion. Coincidentally, as I was adding the finishing touches to The Well, IBé shared an announcement of construction of a memorial in  honor of the victims.

Oak Springs Garden Foundation Residency, Part 3 /  by Alisa Banks

While I was in Virginia at OSGF last year attending an artist’s residency I focused on finding names of enslaved residents and learning about their lives. Fortunately, I was able to locate the names of several more enslaved persons, thanks to a database maintained by the African American Historical Society of Fauquier County (AAHA). Though I was not able to learn any personal information about their lives, my findings inspired several new works, including Tracings.

The book mentions the beautiful stone walls, many built by slave labor, that crisscross the terrain of OSGF and surrounding tracts. Tracings presents ancestry, foodways, and folkways of the enslaved as questions because, though this information is available for the Piedmont Virginia area, I could not verify it as specific to the people who lived on the lands surrounding OSGF.

My goal was to complete Tracings onsite - it was important to me that the book should be at, and of, the place. My thought is that it would be made with what was on hand and, though not spontaneous, it would be partially impromptu. Though five weeks was a stretch, it was not such a long time to complete a book (actually two books and a box)! The covers were the last to be completed. I wanted to take rubbings (frottages) of the oldest stone walls, those the enslaved built, which contained spacers of American Chestnut. Thankfully, my other housemate Sefra Alexandra accompanied me on the frottage quest and took the image below.

The enslaved persons mentioned in Tracings were not documented in the written history of Virginia, but that does not mean that they were forgotten by their ancestors. Remembering and honoring ancestors takes place in many forms – by awareness of family history, sharing stories of individual deeds, and continuing foodways and customs, to name a few. I was happy to learn of an initiative, in which the African American Historical Society of Fauquier County (AAHA) and OSGF are involved, to locate descendants of the enslaved, which will likely bring to light more names and connections, righting the wrongs of erasure. It was a fruitful five weeks, and I am thankful to the Oak Springs Garden Foundation for the time and space to delve into this topic.

Oak Springs Garden Foundation Residency, Part 2 /  by Alisa Banks

While I was in Virginia at OSGF last year attending an artist’s residence, I learned through research that 10,455 enslaved people in Fauquier County, where OSGF is located, were emancipated upon the end of the Civil War. It was shocking to learn of the sheer number of enslaved who were living in this county, which is not even the largest, nor the county with the most enslaved people in Virginia.

More sobering was considering the thousands who were released with only the clothes on their backs and their wits as their own. Fauquier 10,455 is a visualization of the number of emancipated souls. It is also witness to a meditation that took place as each dot was stamped individually onto the silk organza, representing an individual freed. Fauquier 10,455 is a one-of-a-kind book.

Fauquier 10,455, open

Searching/Finding is a unique scroll which visualizes the accumulated data from researching the history of OSGF. Layered mull (a heavily starched cotton fabric used to reinforce book spines) features a cut and stitched outline of the two adjoining tracts of OSGF, and names of the enslaved interspersed.

Searching/Finding

Oak Springs Garden Foundation Residency, Part 1 /  by Alisa Banks

Last summer, I spent 5 glorious weeks as a resident artist at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, Virginia. My first visit to OSGF was in 2021, to attend a two-week residential course in papermaking using wild plants with Alyssa Saccora of The Patchwork Underground. After that initial visit, I learned that on OSGF land and in the surrounding area were a number of farms maintained by slave labor until the end of the Civil War. I learned the names of six of the enslaved persons working on OSGF land, and immediately decided that if I ever returned, I would focus on finding more names and learning about their lives.

I decided on another goal during that second visit to OSGF: to explore the landscape, particularly considering the native flora that the enslaved would have encountered. This required lots of hiking! Fortunately, our cohort included folks who routinely walk the wilds, including housemate Barbara Bosworth, who accompanied me on most of my ventures – identifying and collecting samples of native flora. I also read that many of the native plants may have been used for food and medicine. Plants were also used for protection, and among the enslaved of the African Diaspora, a practice was to place plants, beads, and other items into pouches that were worn around the neck, sometimes containing text or other symbology. These pouches go by several names, including mojo, juju, and gris-gris. This inspired two new works, A Gathering and Gris-gris.

Gathering (left) and Gris-gris (right)

For Gris-gris, plants and found objects were placed in pouches and hung on the wall in a circle. The text on several of the pouches features medicinal plant usages. Gris-gris is a unique artist’s book.

Gris-gris

The original (or prototype) version of A Gathering consisted of fresh plants with their names hung in a circle on the studio wall. The plants became withered and twisted, and were discarded upon leaving OSGF, but samples were pressed and later used to make prints for one edition, which also features names and usages of the plants that were gathered. A Gathering is a double-sided one sheet book – one side can be unfolded and read – that can be suspended and viewed from both sides. A Gathering is an edition of three.

A Gathering (front)

A Gathering, back

CBAA Artist of the Month /  by Alisa Banks

Inheritance, open reverse quilt

I am pleased to introduce my latest book Inheritance as the College Book Art Association (CBAA) Artist of the Month. In the article, I discuss thoughts and processes involved in creating Inheritance, a book that features several unusual materials. Read the article here.

virtual Workshop: Building a Book art reference /  by Alisa Banks

Building-a-Book-Art-Reference.jpg

Join me Tuesdays, October 12, 19, 26 from 7–9pm CT (convert your time zone) for a virtual workshop sponsored by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) to build a book that serve as a personal library for adding text and imagery to your book work. Learn low-tech methods for adding text to book pages, creative ways to attach images,, and how to assemble samples into an album.

Each session will feature demonstrations, discussion, and brainstorming. Participants may follow along or work on their own between sessions. Together, we’ll create a tool that can be used to enhance or inspire your next project!

Additional details and registration here.

Recent Work - Wrongful Termination /  by Alisa Banks

Wrongful Termination addresses race-based discriminatory practices. Starting in the 1980’s, multiple suits have been filed against employers, schools, and other agencies by people of color (primarily women) who were fired, passed over for promotion or hiring, or sent home for wearing their natural hair. Wrongful is a unique altered book featuring two original poems and texts from newspaper editorials.

In 2019, California and New York became the first and second states respectively, to pass the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair or CROWN Act, to end race-based hair discrimination. According to a study sponsored by Dove:

  • A Black woman is 80% more likely to change her natural hair to meet social norms or expectations at work.

  • Black women are 50% more likely to be sent home or know of a black woman sent home from the workplace because of her hair.

More information about the CROWN Act can be found here. The CROWN Act is not about feeling good about oneself or one’s body, but about fighting discriminatory practices based on race.

A special thanks to Annie Howe, for the warm welcome she extended to her Baltimore studio earlier this year. Annie introduced me to a new knife and insisted that I bring home the samples that were used to carve out the book. I had so much fun at our visit that I didn’t think to take photos!

Modeling the Message - Book Divination Tool /  by Alisa Banks

This tool was created for Modeling the Message: A Fusion of the Verbal and the Visual, a talk I gave at Scripps College for the Frederick W. Goudy Lecture Series, February 6, 2020. Click the button below to download your free standard copy of this tool and use it to evaluate your project. Print the pattern on regular paper. Folding instructions are included in the document.

Modeling The Message Tool

To Use: Spell out the 4 principles - Communication, Design, Form, or Pattern while opening and closing the model. Read and answer the question that opens. Flip up the corresponding triangle for action tips.

For an interesting read about the cootie catcher, the form used for this tool, see the article linked here.