My artist’s books and related wall pieces are made with hand-printed and painted
papers, inkjet prints, found objects, and art materials; I use various established
and ad hoc techniques.
Whether the book is a mobile, a stack of shapes or a traditional codex, the ideas
unfold over time and through space. These works stretch the limits of the book
form. In each, a sequential form expresses the concept and a wide range of materials
gives depth to the imagery. All aspects of the book- form, content, materials,
binding, and housing- serve the concept motivating the work.
Much of the imagery in my work is of ordinary objects; the concepts distill everyday
conflicts with expectations, constraints, chance, and uncontrollable situations.
Objects and images assume metaphorical significance; they become symbolic of
events, associations, and the attached emotions.
Materials, concept, and process interact to produce conceptually provocative
and aesthetically evocative work.
Wave Wall
2016
11 freestanding drawings mounted on aluminum sheets and curved, each 15” x 19½” x 4”
Length is 16’ when assembled in a line
India ink and graphite on Arches Cover; aluminum sheets
Drawings, inked, crumpled, rubbed, and pressed, were mounted on aluminum sheets which were then rolled; the five convex and six concave sheets curve to a depth of 4”and can be assembled end to end to form a wave of paper, either in a long line, a semicircle, or in segments. The wave stands alone or serves as a backdrop for the artist book Press/Crush described below.
Press/Crush
2012-14
14” x 16” x 14” closed
72” x 14” x 4” hanging
48” D x 14” standing (circular)
12 double pages: cover, 10 pages with objects, last page with text.
Aluminum objects flattened with a steamroller fossilize violent actions. These objects combine with drawings, rubbings, prints, and collages to further the theme of crushing pressure. The double pages fold open to support the structure; the crushed objects hang suspended. The text on the last page riffs on the word press: repress, depress, oppress, compress, decompress, expression, impression, impressive, pressure.
Mirrors
2011
10" H x 68" W x 1" D (book open)
photographs and photocollages mounted on bookboard, bits of mirror, found objects, cloth, wire, beads, and papers
Unique accordion book housed in a cookie tin
Dual works, Mirrors, an artist book, and the video mirrorrim use photographs of rooms through mirrors and collages from superimposed images to explore visual interiors and absence. The text, "If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you," is from a snapshot of a passing truck. Bits of mirror reflect the text and collage elements enhance the images. The book is bound with delicate metallic fabric and is meant to be displayed open and can be hung on the wall. The curved pages fold and fit into a cookie tin; the top reflects the title of the book so the reverse writing can be read.
Strike On
2008
7 1/4"x 10 ¾" x 2"
Matchboxes, flag fragments, matches, printouts, exit signs
Unique book
Four matchboxes hold lists of the US soldiers who have
died in Iraq between March 2003 and March 2007, the fourth anniversary
of the war. Their names are mounted on burnt matches; each match holds
about fifteen names and resembles a flag. The four boxes fit in a case
made from two exit signs.
Removable, Movable, Immovable: a Movable Book
2003-7
10" x 12 1/2" x 2"
Bookboard, giclee prints, handprinted paper, magnets, found objects;
bound with hinges and linen cord
Edition of three, box with casters
In the first spread, Removal/Remove, magnetized plaques detach to reveal
images of things to be removed. In the second spread, Remove/Move, a
magnetized disk lifts and attaches to a spinning mechanism. The third
spread, Immovable, features an embedded fossilized crab.
Strike Anywhere
2002
4 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 1 1/2"
Crushed metal, wax, acrylic paint, clay beads, plexiglass, xerox
transfers, found objects
Unique
A kitchen matchbox covered
with ash houses this small two-part book that is a reflection on 9/11
and the war in Afghanistan. Finished before the war in Iraq, one section
features an icon-like image of Osama bin Laden surrounded by small clay
death heads. Idyllic images from Afghan trucks are superimposed on a
photo from the N.Y. Times of the plane aiming for the second tower of
the World Trade Center. The second section features a delicate butterfly
wing painted red,white, and blue, and a picture of George W. Bush peering
like a sheik through the folds of a dollar bill.
Stress Test: Souvenir
2000-01
32" x 39"
Crumpled paper, bookboard, polaroid transfer, pastel, graphite,
ink, found objects, text
Collage with detachable accordion book.
Wall piece.
Stress Tests is a new series that incorporates stories
and visual images related to objects that have undergone some trauma.
Souvenir, a wall piece with a detachable accordion book, is the first
in this series. The narrative depicts the adventures of a deck of cards.
Don’t Panic
2000
10" x 35" x 1"
Bookboard, color copy transfer, chewed pens and other found objects
Unique free-standing book
Don’t Panic is bound with telephone wire
and stands or hangs to reveal a sequence of six directives: YOU, YOU
DO IT, CAN IT, CAN IT DO, IT CAN DO YOU, and finally, YOU CAN DO IT.
On the backs of the pages are patterns of phrases cut from lists of platitudes
given out by well-meaning school officials. They become increasingly
more fragmented towards the end of the book.
Procrastination
1999-2002
8" x 4 ½" x 4 ½"
Found objects, bookboard, photocopies
Accordion book; five
unique variants with boxes; freestanding
Letters spelling the word
“procrastination" made from bookboard backed with doodles and drawings
and bound with elastic spaced with wire-covered minute timers. Cover
is made from an old alarm clock. A small monument to procrastination,
this accordion book is bound with elastic cord. The blank clock face
and tethered timers hold the book together and the clock collage has
extra hours added to it. The backs of the pages are cartoons and doodles
drawn by bored students in the margins of workbooks.
Oversize Load
1997
29" x 29" x 21" (open)
Black Arches, book board, Color photocopy, found objects, and
handpainted and found papers Unique, free-standing This is a large-scale
book that folds out into a maze-like house. Every interior surface is
covered with images of cluttered rooms, closets, and passageways. Stitched
around the outside and forming the binding of the book is a banner with
the words "oversize load" used to flag trucks with wide cargo.
Depression and Relief
1995-1997
Six two-sided collages, 16" x 14" each
Found objects on bookboard.
Unique; wall piece
Work
in progress. Each of the “steps" in this series of wall pieces--there
will eventually be twelve--represents an antidote for depression. Just
as embossing creates both high and low areas, there is no relief without
depression and no depression without relief. The footprint in “Afloat"
is depressed through linoleum flooring buoyed by wine corks. The verso
of “Down at the Heels" shows worn heels and shoe prints: the rosy front
side shows dollar bills and a worn sole. Other “steps" include: “Uppers
and Downers" (about the chemical relief of depression), “Home Improvement"
(the suburban cure), “Watch the Donut not the Hole" (about food and femininity),
and “Muy Trabajadora" (about work).
Little Chaos
1996
4 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2"
Photographs, acrylic mirrors, found objects
Artist's Book,
edition of four with boxes
This prickly book has the three dimensional
feel of a tunnel book. The cover is made of a kitchen grater, and it
is bound with unravelled picture wire. The jumble of kitchen utensils
is a metaphor for a disorganized and fast-paced life. The effect of chaos
is heightened by the use of mirrors which add a dimension of depth to
the photographs. Each page spells a letter of the word “chaos", and the
viewer must use the mirrors to complete these letters. The book is housed
in a box in the shape of a kitchen drawer.
Chaos
1996
26" x 36"x 10"
Unique, free-standing
Xeroxes from original photographs;
prints, rubbings, drawings, and found objects.
This large-scale
accordion book uses multi-layered images of kitchen utensils to take
the viewer through the existential exercise of searching for one elusive
utensil in a cluttered drawer. The chaotic feeling of the work is heightened
by the askew tilt of the trapezoidal pages.
Self-image
1994
12" x 12" x 40"
Unique sculptural book
Acrylic mirror tiles, wire, acrylic
paint.
This tunnel book has irregular openings that allow the viewer
to see his or her reflection framed by the metallic painting on the backs
of the tiles. Because the tiles have been heated, the images are distorted
and the reflection at the end of the tunnel is tiny.
Marsha’s Mobile: Amorous Entanglements
1994
18" x 72"
Unique Hanging Book
Found objects, collages, beaten copper,
hung from vine.
Nine collages hang from a twisted vine entwined
with hearts of all types and sizes. Most of the collages incorporate
a bit of text, and explore an aspect of love.
Stirring
1994
80" x 12"
Unique hanging book
Color copy from slides, shopping bags,
found objects, papier d’Arches on book board with wax. Bound with key
chain. Boxed in a cake tin with book-board cover.
The process of
cookie making. An exploration of the motion of stirring and the stirred
emotions cookies evoke.
Cookie Boogie-Woogie
1994
3" diameter x 1"
Open edition
Color copy stuffed with laundry lint bound on
a metal ring with a chocolate chip made from polymer clay.
Color
copies from slides of homemade cookies and collages composed of commercial
cookie boxes, school hand outs, and articles about mothering. The text
on the cookies reads: “Ceci n’est pas un petit gâteau; c’est l’amour.
Ceci n’est pas l’amour; c’est un petit gâteau."
Stackbook: Air
1993-7
18" x 13" x 7"
Unique
Wall scraps, bubble wrap, found objects
This
stack book explores air.
Stackbook: Earth
1993-6
17" x 12" x 5"
Unique
Wall scraps, found objects, bark paper
This stack
book explores earth.
Stackbook: Fire
1993
18" x 13" x 4"
Unique
Wall scraps, color copy, found objects, pastel.
This stack book explores fire.
Stackbook: Water
1993
24" x 18" x 4"
Unique
Wall scraps, color copy, found objects, graphite,
wax.
One of four stack books exploring the elements. The pages of
this book, resembling ice floes, stack around a small house made of detergent
boxes. Reverse sides of pages incorporate old photographs and drawings
relating to water and ice.
MUST
1993
4" x 4" x 4"
Unique, with box
Wall scraps, laundry lint, color copy, bound
with fabric and thumb tacks.
MUST (Mothers Under STress) incorporates
cutouts from a newspaper article on motherhood, “cookies" made of laundry
lint. Pages are stacked and bound in a house shape. Box is covered with
laundry lint.
A Dishwasher Is Not Magic
1993
6" x 5" x 1½"
Accordion book, edition of 5 with boxes
Papier d’Arches,
color copy from Polaroids, found objects.
Accordion book with cutouts
and portraits of full dishwasher loads. Text from a dishwasher repairman.
Endpapers encrusted with dishwasher related objects and imagery. Back
cover has a design of scrubbers. Box opens like a dishwasher.
Cookie Sheet
1993
19" x 11.75" x 1"
Cookie sheet and color photocopy
Wall piece
Photocopy
of chocolate chip cookies superimposed on an article from the New York
Times about mothering in the 1990s and set into a cookie sheet.
Intimate Positions
1992
15" x 40"
Unique Hanging Book
Linoleum, sardine cans, fabric.
Three warped linoleum tiles with sardine cans embedded in them, covered
with objects, fabrics, and juxtapositions that allude to the intimacy,
comfort, and slightly suffocating quality of coupledom.
Coming to Terms with Drudgery
1991
14" x 15"
Folio of Collages
Papier d’Arches, found papers, laundry
lint, rags, encaustic.
A series of six collages, each with a central
landscape, composed of household detritus.
Remove Before
1991
17" x 15" x 2½"
Unique
Roofing tile, tarpaper, photocopy, hand-printed papers,
found objects, folio-style binding.
Three collages made of objects
embedded in folded tarpaper fit onto protrusions in the cover. Remove
Before is about all those things which must be removed before doing something
else.
Strike: A War Book
1991
4¾" x 2¾" x 1½"
Unique
Sandpaper, paint, found objects, bound with wire woven
through cloth and around burnt matches.
A kitchen matchbox covered
with sand houses this small journal done during the Gulf War. Each page
is a collage of a different aspect of the war as it unfolded. The text
consists of headings cut from a magazine article.
Heavy Black Book
1991
3½" diameter x 1¾"
Unique
Black papier d’Arches, found objects, steel disks,
bound with a nut and bolt, housed in a tuna can.
Five circular collages
of small found objects set in paper. Paper covered steel disks form the
cover. Can be unbolted and displayed flat or wall mounted.
Yellow Black Book
1990
25½" x 10 x ½"
Unique
Black papier d’Arches, acrylic, gouaches, found objects.
Fan-shaped accordion book. Explores the color yellow through heat imagery.
Objects in the last fold are visible through cut out openings when book
is closed. May be displayed semi-folded or flat. Can be wall mounted.
Blue Black Book
1990
29½" x 14½" x 1½"
Black papier d’arches with gouaches and acrylic, papier collé
and found objects. Bound with chiffon string through holes in center.
Large papier collé endpapers sandwich irregularly shaped pages painted
with spirals. Exploration of the color blue; space imagery. Circular
patterns in metallic paint on left hand pages. Extra long chiffon allows
book to be spread out so all pages are visible.
Green Black Book
1989
17" x 14" x 2"
Unique
Black papier d’Arches with gouaches and acrylic, papier
collé and found objects. Bound with handwoven cord and wood.
Papier
collé endpapers revealed through openings cut in pages of double thickness
and pressed into wave shapes. Exploration of the color green with water
imagery. Papers painted with metallic water patterns on each left-hand
page.
Black Book III
1983
5" x 5" x 1"
Unique
Black papier d’Arches, velvet, graphite, watercolor,
and gouache, bound with bent paper clips on a stationary backing.
Pages of double thickness curved to conform to the palm of the hand,
with openings narrowing to a tiny feather embedded in the last page.
This is one of several curved Black Books.
Black Book I
1982
14" x 8 1/2" x 2"
Boxed folio of nine collages
Black papier d'Arches, graphite,
mesh
Collages made from fan-shaped pieces of paper folded and worked
on both sides. Objects sandwiched between the layers and rubbed with
graphite suggest fragments of metal embedded in pavement.
