CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY

ARTIST'S BOOKS THROUGH TIME: VOL. 1

APRIL 30 - AUGUST 14, 2009

The concept of the communicative mark is a basic one. When the marks are strung together, a series of thoughts are linked together. In most instances, they communicate with each other and out to the reader or viewer.   

When that series of marks are bound between covers it gives a specific direction for the marks to travel. This mode of travel becomes a book. Artists’ Books Through Time, Vol. I (April 30-June13, 2009) will bring into fruition an idea we have wanted to follow for a long time, a viewing of the book form that has come through a meeting of image and text by the artists’ hands.

We have removed the historic narrative in this introductory exhibition in favor of an eclectic sampling of hand-made books, which cover a wide area of Time and Place. There are inner themes both deliberate and accidental to connect them, for example, the 15th and16th Century Tibetan, Sino-Tibetan, and Mongolian books that resonate with the Yi tribal Chinese magical scrolls on leather, that link to more contemporary forms of Tibetan inspired works by Lidia Syroka, or young Tibetan artist, Gade.  

We will feature book pages from Tibet and India, Japanese Shima-cho, Japanese erotic shunga, works by Art Brut artists like Zdenek Kosek’s weather maps, Melvin Edward Nelson’s space dust drawings, New York mediums Helen Butler Wells and Naomi Oliver, collages by Jerry Wagner, and Native American ledger drawings.  Contemporary works by Vichai Chinalai, Howard Smith, Lydia Syroka, Gade, and actual books fired in a kiln by conceptual artist, Yohei Nishimura will also be on display.