Artists' Books in Crossett: Identities, Traces, and Alterations: Artists’ Books from the Crossett Library Collection, February 15 - April 30, 2023

A delicate, but haunting series of portraits accompanies the reader through the search for self hidden in the pieces of the missing past. The absence and loss of family identity associated with adoption is explored through the method of devore printing that leaves a transparent imagery behind. 14 x 175 cm. folded to 14 x 12 cm. Edition of 100. Paper: Framed silk. Printing method: Letterpress, devore screen print. Accordion Fold

García photographed hundreds of New York street signs and then used language from his images to compose a poem-like list of text. A single line of text from one New York sign appears on each fold of the accordion book. The paper Garca selected for the book transitions from bright green to blue to orange to red to yellow -- creating a verse-like effect for text on each color of paper. It was created as part of an Artist-in-Residence program 2021 at Center for Book Arts, NYC and used and 45 metal type specimens from the Center for Book Arts collection. 91 p.; 21.5 x 346.7 cm.; Edition of 200 signed and numbered. Crossett owns number 30. Accordion Binding. Letterpress Printed.

"What's Left is a limited edition artist's book which presents a collaboration between the artist and a group of her high school students who each immigrated to the United States as children. The artist interviewed each student and asked, "What is the most memorable object that you left behind when coming to the United States?" 13 unnumbered pages; 20 cm; font is Lato; Mohawk Superfine paper, letterpress printed hand carved woodblocks; Drum Leaf (adhesive) binding; Signed edition of 50. Crossett owns number 38.

The Atlas of Punctuation displays the distribution of all end-of-sentence punctuation for 14 books. The punctuation for each book is consolidated to a single sheet, as if everything about the book, except the punctuation was removed, and then flattened to a single plane. The books contained in the atlas are representative literary classics that convey a quality of space and scale in the imagination. Letterpress printed on Mohawk superfine 80 lb. cover paper using Adobe Garamond and Avenir typefaces for informational text. Edition of 100. 25 x 22 cm. 29 p. Case Bound.

Nannucci explores the color green through photographing plants and assigning tones and scales to develop a "fundamental chromatic code". Text in English and Italian. One folded page, 34x11 cm. Off set printed. Edition of 1000.

"In the hot summer of '76, a fire removed a large area of surface vegetation from a blanket bog high up in the Black Mountains of Wales. The plants have never grown back and the exposed peat is like a huge scar on the landscape. Without its protective covering, the peat is gradually being eroded away by the wind and the weather." Edition of 50. 10.5 x 6"; 28 pages. Hand stitched, digitally printed codex interleaved with tissue paper. Printed with archival pigment inks on Gerstaecker 125 gsm paper. Cover is Arches 250 gsm rag paper.

where are we now is based on the artist’s memories in the aftermath of her mother’s passing in Los Angeles in 2009. Her family had immigrated from Korea a few years before. Images in the book depict moments in her struggle with grief, depression, and her father’s alcohol abuse. Repeated imagery reflects the recurrence of events – how the artist dealt with the frequency of her dad’s alcoholic behaviors; and the cyclical return of the memories after moving away from home. 35cm X 48.5cm Silkscreen, letterpress (photopolymer), relief (linoleum) printed; Alegreya Sans and Nanum Gothic fonts; Masa soft white, Stonehenge (black) paper; Drum Leaf (adhesive) binding; Signed edition of 50. Crossett owns number 15.

This book includes 111 paste-ups / collages by the artist composed of gathered dried leaves, grasses and seeds. The materials are selected and arranged in formations that appear as asemic writing reminiscent of handwriting, syllabaries, and the letterforms. In order to emphasize the graphic quality of these works, the book is published in black/white. Edition of 400 copies. Numbered and signed by the artist. 17" x 12.5" x 1.25". 232 pages.

Transparency Reflection Light Space: A Response was created as a response to a 1971 exhibition catalog interview with the artist, Larry Bell. Prior to the publication of the catalog, Bell removed the vowels from his answers. Leah Mackin read Bell’s obfuscated responses as inherently gendered in the context of the masculine art historical legacy of Minimalism. They are defiant, brusque and, when read aloud, Bell’s words are unpronounceable, guttural noises. Her response to the work presents the remaining vowels, as a sort of harmonic vocalization, since vowels give shape and rounded-out sound to the English language. 20.5 cm x 20.5 cm. Letterpress, photocopy and laser printed. 38 pages. Saddle stitch pamphlet in hard covers. Signed. Edition of 63. Crossett owns number 44.

This book explores the concept of an invisible mend, contrasting the mend of a garment with the attempt to mend a relationship. A darning stitch is a sewing technique used for repairing worn areas in fabric, an attempt to make the repair as neat and invisible as possible to restore a piece of clothing to its original state. Instructions and diagrams for darning are printed on overbeaten abaca paper, while on cotton paper are images of fabric alongside a narrative of a marriage. The cotton spreads are visible beneath the translucent abaca sheets, juxtaposing this story against the clear and straightforward instructions for mending clothing. The images of torn cloth are created using the blowout technique, further emphasizing the moments of damage and wear both within the fabric and within the relationship. [44] pages. 26 x 28 cm. Paper: handmade abaca and cotton paper. Printing: Silkscreen and letterpress. Binding: Case bound. Signed edition of 47. Crossett owns number 33.

Vancouver artist Andrew Dadson has based his book around a star map from 1850. The original map was photocopied, and each subsequent copy was re-photocopied. The slow degradation of the image marks the cultural shift within our interpretation of the stars (constellation charts were called maps of the heavens but after 1975 they became known as maps of the sky) and each photocopy represents a year in the decline from "heaven to earth." From start to finish the map changes from an accurate vision of the stars above to an abstracted blackness depicting the new "heaven" in the year 2008. Offset Printed.
28.5 x 19 cm. 168 p.

‘Grass, Kim Su-yong’ is a typographic artists' book in which a poem composed of letters is transformed into an image. Xianlu Yi reinterpreted a poem into the form of concrete poetry that freely constitutes the size and location of letters, and utilizing the forms of pop-up and accordion books to express the repeated rhythm of the poem in three dimensions. Kim Su-yeong is one of the most exceptional modern poets in Korea. He died at a relatively young age of 48 in 1968, but his poetry became a symbol of freedom and revolution during the democratization of Korea. His last poem ‘Grass’, was published posthumously. It can be viewed as symbolic of populist grass-roots movement interpreted the phrases from ‘Grass’ such as “lying down faster than the wind” and “rising faster than the wind,” as signifying the tenacious vitality of the masses. It can also be viewed from a humanist interpretation as a symbol of life itself. Edition of 50 copies. 11.3 x 13.5 cm. Wooden hardcover. Accordion binding. Pop up structure.

Throughout the photobook are interwoven solarigraphs from 32 pinhole cameras on the roofs of houses in the city of Oaxaca, which recorded both the path of the sun, as well as the great earthquake of 2017 that destroyed much of the state. In the story Bustamante draws an analogy between the phantom limb syndrome in which a patient, after having been amputated, continues to feel the now non-existent limb with the lingering presence of the parent long after they have passed away. Paperback.
23 x 21 cm. Sewn binding.