When I was in third grade, finally trusted with my sister’s vintage Nancy Drews, I ate them as I read them; not the whole thing but the crackly margins around the text – yellowed Communion wafers tasty as taco chips.
Artists do something similar, although to greater acclaim. They destroy books in order to honor them and make them their own.
The Book Borrowers: Contemporary Artists Transforming the Book is at the Bellevue Arts Museum through June 14.
Although major figures from the art of the book (Anselm Kiefer, Ellen Gallagher, Ann Hamilton, Glenn Ligon, Tim Rollins and the Kids of Survival and Ed Ruscha), are not here, Book Borrowers is studded with gems. From the elaborate to the stark, the best fuse the container with the thing contained. (Click to see larger images.)
1. Jennifer Khoshbin (Hood)
2. Brian Dettmer (New Book of Knowledge).
Other artists in the show are Noriko Ambe; Brian Dettmer; Long-Bin Chen; Jacquline Rush Lee; James Allen; Gary Berg; Casey Curran; Alan Corkery Hahn; Jane Lackey; Guy
Laramée; Georgia Russell, and
Yuken Teruya.
The Brian Dettmer piece in the image, New Books of Knowledge, is not at Bellevue, but it is currently in an exhibition of Brian’s work at Packer-Schopf Gallery in Chicago: http://www.packergallery.com/dettmer3/
Hi Anonymous.
This piece isn’t a review. It’s just, these artists are in this show, and this is an example of their work, as BAM posts almost none. I could have made that clearer. Thanks for the note. Regina