#abanks
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.
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.
My latest book, Inheritance, will be on display in Adaptation: Artist’s Books for a Changing Environment, an exhibit at the Environmental Design Library at UC Berkeley until May 15. The opening reception, April 9 from 3 - 6pm, coincides with the CODEX International Art Fair. Event details here.
Images: Rough book dummy for Yeene (left); Yeene, final version (right).
I look forward to spending time in the Hudson Valley this summer to teach The Book Art Dummy, a week-long workshop at WSW’s Summer Art Institute from August 22 – 26. The workshop will focus on the development of original content to create a dummy for a book art project.
The 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 and can be rough or refined. Participants will identify a project and create their book dummy during the workshop.
Learn more about the workshop and register here.
Emergence
Inheritance 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.
A conversation on book art at SCAD
Join artists Sauda Mitchell, Carletta Carrington Wilson, and me at SCAD for Guests & Gusto, a virtual conversation about books moderated by Joël Díaz, director of the SCAD Museum of Art’s Evans Center for African American Studies, Tuesday, February 15 at 6pm ET. The event is free but reservations are required. Reserve a spot here.
Image: Susan Happersett, From Women of the Resistance, 1460 collages & video, 2017 - 2021
I’m pleased to announce a short online presentation of my work at the New Jersey Book Arts Symposium sponsored by Rutgers University, Friday, November 4 at 2pm ET.
The Words Turned Sideways, the 27th annual New Jersey Book Arts Symposium
An online event: Thursday & Friday, November 4 & 5, 2021
Sessions on both days from: 10 am - noon, 2 pm - 4 pm & 7 pm - 8:30 pm
The Symposium is free, but registration is required. Register at: https://go.rutgers.edu/njbas2021
Rutgers New Brunswick Special Collections and University Archives is delighted to announce that this year’s New Jersey Book Arts Symposium will once again be held in cyberspace. As in years past, it will feature speakers, artists in residence, and a chance to interact with other creators. New this year are opportunities made possible by the virtual format: live streamed and prerecorded presentations, virtual studio tours, videos, a hands on do-at-home workshop and cocktail with curators breakout sessions.
Featured Artists: Alisa Banks, Long-Bin Chen, Carla Rae Johnson, Annie Lopez, Rachel Mulder, Derli Romero, Sonia Yaco / Workshop Artists: Catherine LeCleire & Suzie Tuchman / Artists in Residence: Susan Happersett, Amanda Thackray / From the Archives: China Marks Presentation from 2018 presented by Judith K. Brodsky & Michael Joseph / All sessions Moderated by Karen Guancione and Sonia Yaco.
Interwoven Alphabet, open
Interwoven Alphabet, a collaborative abcedary created with Diane Jacobs, featuring various themes including relationships, nature, the senses, time, and the environment, is on view in Every Day & Special Days at the Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Bainbridge Island, WA..
Co-curators: Cynthia Sears and Catherine Alice Michaelis present Every Day & Special Days taking viewers on a journey from daily delights and mundane activities to once-in-a-lifetime events.
Between birth and death, we string together memories of dailiness: the view from a window, the route we travel to school or work, the rhythm of mealtimes and seasons, or cultural messages that inform our interactions, to name just a few.
Special days lift us from the mundane and predictable. They might include a trip to the ocean, birthdays, a marriage, or immigrating to a new country. A special day may signal a change in our life or even our world, and become the new every day."
Interwoven Alphabet , and edition of 2, consists of 26 half-inch thick square felt pages. Each page features imagery on the larger sides and words are stitched along each narrow edge. Imagery and words correspond to the letter of the alphabet assigned to the page. New messages are revealed as the blocks are turned.
