Bookworks

Words Matter, transforms books into tactile sculptural forms that draw attention to histories embedded in language. Language is biased; what gets written in history books is skewed. I alter the book in a way that speaks to the context of the book, generally incorporating a textile technique. Each piece has its own narrative. Elinborg Larusdottir’s Two Hours balances care giving and survival with writing; the Icelandic author’s career was not well established until after her children grew up. Klondike has a stone placed over every racist and misogynist word in Pierre Berton’s text about the Yukon gold rush; there are about 300 pebbles weighing down the book. Gunga Din depicts a rain cloud flooding over the words of Rudyard Kipling in his Barrack Room Ballads while in Poetic Justice, the 620 pages of poetry written by about 60 male poets create a nestling, woven basket for the four women whose poetry occupies a mere 20 pages. La Maison de Claudine uses Colette’s novel to create a house. She was forced to publish under her husband’s name, her fame only blossoming after their divorce. He Said She Said is the only handmade book. It takes quotes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his contemporary Mary Wollstonecraft, positioning their opposing thoughts on the education of girls on facing pages. By contrast, I made A Knot of Confessions using a volume of Rousseau’s memoirs which reveals a more sensitive attitude to the women in his life. Millett/Miller celebrates Kate Millett’s critique of Henry Miller’s writing. Learning Language was created with a book found at an abandoned camp in the Yukon. The book is impossible to identify but appears to be about learning an indigenous language. It has lichen growing on it, a sign of life. Each book tells a story.