Artists' Books in Crossett: Kitakata & Khichdi: Artists' Books from the Crossett Library Collection, May 1- August 20, 2023

"Paper Paper Film is a paper sculpture facsimile of a box set of educational films on Paper and Gravure Printing, published by Meridian Educational Films in 1983. The original box set was found in a storage closet within Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art Print Studios. Through the creation of this laboriously handmade physical copy, the artist transforms an outdated tool for education into an art object in direct conversation with the power structures of how, why, and what is archived." 112 unnumbered pages; 7 x 11 cm + 4 paper sculptures (7 x 10 x 1 cm and 37 x 52 mm diameter) and 1 sheet (18 x 23 cm); Papers: handmade cotton paper, Colorplan (bright red and leather embossed) acetate, Rives BFK, Awagami Murakumo Kozo Select Natural Digital Inkjet Washi; Perfect Bound (adhesive); die cut; silkscreen and digitally printed.

"Photographer Daido Moriyama book features photographs he made over the years of kuchibiru (lips). The subjects range from anonymous women whose likenesses are reproduced on posters, to Daido’s own friends and acquaintances." "One Picture Book series was conceived in 1998 as a way to make original artwork affordable. The series consists of uniformly designed, modestly-sized hardcover books, comprising 16 pages that serve as a “canvas” for the artist to display one cohesive body of work. Each One Picture Book is published in an edition of 500 numbered copies, and each contains an original tipped-in photograph, signed on the verso by the artist; hence the name of the series." 19 cm. Edition of 500. Crossett owns number 459.

Taxonomy of Shapes challenges the reader's perception of their environment and current systems of scientific classification. The book represents elements from both natural and man-made environments with hand drawn icons. A translucent, hand-waxed Kitakata overlay with small circle, square and triangle windows reveals selected objects from the letterpress-printed sheet beneath. Peering through the waxed Kitakata even reveals a glimpse of what's lost by the current classification. Edition of 52, signed and numbered by the artist. Crossett Library copy is number 41/52. Cardstock covers with accordion-fold pages letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on Sakamoto paper, with hand- and die-cut, folded waxed Kitakata paper overlays.

"A poetry comic that follows the mythological hybrid as it enacts its roles of hunter, stalker, executioner, devourer." - Jia Sung. The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable describes a harpy as "In Greek and Roman mythology, a rapacious monster described as having a woman's head and body and a bird's wings and claws or (as in Virgil's Aeneid) depicted as a bird of prey with a woman's face; in extended usage, a grasping unscrupulous woman." Jia Sung is a Singaporean Chinese artist, currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work draws on motifs from Chinese mythology, Buddhist iconography, and the familiar visual language of folklore to examine and subvert the archive through a queer feminist lens. 7 unnumbered pages. 16 cm. Binding: Saddle Stitch / Staple.

A list of the artist’s fears, ranging from physiological angst, to interpersonal and social anxieties, animal phobias, environmental worries, and political concerns, written in pencil on scratch paper during a research trip to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California in Summer 2018. Publisher: Wendy's Subway. Pages [12] p.; 22 x 14.5 cm; Stitch Bound; Risograph. Edition of 125.

"“The material world was a place fragmented and constantly changing; this changing aspect of the universe came to be called Samara. In modern parlance, samsara refers to a place, set of objects and possessions, but originally, the word referred to a process of continuous pursuit or flow of life. In accordance with the literal meaning, the word should either refer to a continuous stream of consciousness, or the continuous but arbitrary drift of passions, desires, emotions, and experiences. To visualize or perceive this hard to grasp idea in a book structure, 12 time based images of tree and water are set in a simple dos a dos structure that can be turned forever. Through the experience of holding this tiny book in a hand and turning the pages, I want to suggest the idea that there is no beginning or ending in the nature and nothing is stationary in the world." Edition of 400. 1.75 x 1.375"; 12 pages. Miniature. Inkjet printed with hand drawn images. Modified dos-dos structure. One sheet folded to form 12 pages. Edition of 400.

"Informed by the closing section in his previous book, Boo Moon, Korean artist Boomoon Kwon has created a new series of high-altitude skyscapes that function perfectly in our One Picture Book format. Boomoon is one of Korea’s greatest contemporary photographers. His work has been widely exhibited throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. On the Clouds comprises reproductions of twelve images, and one original signed print." "One Picture Book series was conceived in 1998 as a way to make original artwork affordable. The series consists of uniformly designed, modestly-sized hardcover books, comprising 16 pages that serve as a “canvas” for the artist to display one cohesive body of work. Each One Picture Book is published in an edition of 500 numbered copies, and each contains an original tipped-in photograph, signed on the verso by the artist; hence the name of the series." 19 cm. Edition of 500. Crossett owns number 480.

A companion to Jesse Chun's eponymous Karaoke video essay, this book centers on a 2,000-year old folk song, which South Korea and North Korea both registered as their own for the UNESCO Intangible Heritage list in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Featuring text documents from the validation process, translations and mistranslations of the lyrics, views of fragmented landscapes, Intangible Heritage disrupts the bureaucratic narrative underlying its subject matter. Publisher: Wendy's Subway. 36 pages; Saddle-stitched; Risograph. Edition of 125

Khichdi (Kitchari) is a book about India’s rapidly changing identity, focusing on gender, technology, and the balance of traditional Indian and western culture. The work is intentionally conscious of photography as a shared experience, and Sethi incorporates his own interests and history, as well as himself, both as a photographer and participant throughout the work. Inspired by India’s ubiquitous decoration and hyper-color, as well as the serendipitous nature of his encounters, Sethi’s inquisitive approach encourages himself, his collaborators, as well as his audience to find and enjoy the beauty, humor, and absurdity in everyday life. Khichdi, a traditional Indian dish, is made from boiled rice and lentils, and includes a variety of spices, vegetables, and sometimes meat. Eaten throughout the entire country, and recently proclaimed the national dish of India, Khichdi takes on an infinite number of forms and preparations, changing region to region, state to state, and even household to household. No single recipe, list of ingredients, or even spelling is deemed to be official, with the only constant quality of the dish being its ever changing identity. In a similar fashion, Sethi’s work never offers a singular permanent viewpoint. Rather, it serves as a expanded, ever changing self portrait documenting an evolution of the country, its people, and the artist himself. 432 unnumbered pages. 28.5 x 21 cm. Embossed covers. Sewn bound. Offset printing. Edition of 1000.

Buddha’s Tears exposes the hidden story of organ harvesting in China from prisoners of conscience, such as Falun Gong practitioners. Statistical information is juxtaposed with poetic rendering of a legend of a statue of Buddha, who weeps in times of crisis. Each page is filled with dates, graphs, maps, drawings and stories, concluding with a sutured image of China, a symbol of healing. The accordion pages unravel to form a long scroll, a traditional form of storytelling. Buddha’s Tears’ thirteen tryptic pages are dense with visual and textual information. Silkscreen, letterpress and digitally printed on Somerset Book 175 g. Type is Helvetica and Heiti 10 point. Issued in an edition of 50 copies.

"Masao Yamamoto’s second contribution to our One Picture Book series pays homage to Mount Fuji, and to some of the comparisons its instantly recognizable silhouette has inspired over the centuries. Yamamoto’s jewel-like photographs capture perfectly the essence of Japan’s most famous mountain; Fujisan is truly a perfect pairing of artist and subject." "One Picture Book series was conceived in 1998 as a way to make original artwork affordable. The series consists of uniformly designed, modestly-sized hardcover books, comprising 16 pages that serve as a “canvas” for the artist to display one cohesive body of work. Each One Picture Book is published in an edition of 500 numbered copies, and each contains an original tipped-in photograph, signed on the verso by the artist; hence the name of the series." 19 cm. Edition of 500. Crossett owns number 95.

Based on a personal experience of loss, View is a bookwork that deals directly with ideas of coming to terms with mortality. This piece includes two books (Mise en scène and Afterimage) that are housed in a cream- and brown cloth-covered compartmented box. Letterpress printed using a combination of photopolymer plates, wood blocks, and pressure plates. 'Mise en scène' is a one-sided three-layer nested accordion; second layer contains text on individual strips; paper-covered boards trimmed in cloth with title and number 'I' onlaid on front cover. 'Afterimage' has concertina spine; pages folded at fore-edge and glued to concertina; text appears through mylar overlays visible through cut-outs on each page. Bare tree branch motif throughout pages; paper-covered boards trimmed in cloth with title and number 'II' onlaid on front cover. Hinged box top uses a magic wallet structure: opened one way it reveals the books in separate trays with ribbon pulls; opened the other way it reveals a miniature dreamscape. Housed in matching cloth-covered folding case. Limited edition of 100 copies.

A small Asian man, a giant white man, a house in Memphis, TN, and a cardboard cutout of Elvis – Tommy Kha’s autobiographical photography book uses a combination of bodily self-portraiture and performance to understand his complex experiences of identity and sexuality. The photographs respond to the need to hide and reveal both Kha’s Chinese ethnicity and sexuality in his hometown. Straying from heavy-handed depictions of cultural identity, he illustrates his alienation with an assemblage of visual poems that quietly capture a disruption between his projected likenesses and his own self-reflections. 80 p. Dimensions 25 x 20 cm. Paperback. Perfect Binding. Edition Size: 450. Crossett owns number 32.

Both a book and a sculptural object, Absence is a memorial to the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Yoon, an architect and designer who is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, chose not to produce a traditional design proposal for the World Trade Center Memorial Competition. Instead she created a non-architectural, non site-specific space of remembrance: a portable personal memorial in the form of book.At almost two pounds, Absence has a considerable physical presence, but it is in every way the ghost of a presence, and it is this ghostliness that gives it its particular emotional weight. A solid white block of thick stock cardboard pages, the book's only "text" consists of one pinhole and two identical squares die-cut into each of its one-hundred-and-twenty pages one for each story of the towers including the antenna mast. These removed elements lead the reader floor by floor through the missing buildings towards the final page where the footprint of the entire site of the World Trade Center is die-cut into a delicate lattice of absent structures.