The stores on Park Ave in Montréal were filled with amazing fruits and vegetables. The vegetables made me hungry for Greek food and my next studio visit.
© 2017 Louise Levergneux
It’s always nice to be back home to hear French and even nicer to speak the language as I share thoughts on art with another artist. I got the chance to visit with artist bookmaker Guylaine Couture in Montréal.
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, a wonderful huge Calder-esque red mobile welcomes you as you walk in Guylaine's atelier. The sculpture added a smile to my face.
This small, fresh, and comfortable space is where Guylaine creates her art form (forme artistique). The media of artists’ book allows her to create works in which both contents and form (le contenu et le contenant) merge a powerful message (message percutant). For Guylaine, the «reader» has to live an experience.
Pour moi, le «lecteur» doit vivre une expérience.”
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Guylaine sitting in her studio
The artist drafts the message, analyzes the meaning of words and images, and develops (élabore avec minutie) the final form of the book with accuracy through re-using printed documents. Guylaine also uses the preservation of the forgotten zone of a photo and the recycling of material having already lived. Her works attempt to show the potential of this plentiful material too easily discarded.
Mes œuvres tentent de détourner cette abondante matière trop facilement larguée.
Touched by the reaction to Donald Trump's election last March, 2017, Guylaine created Want to be heard. This book began in the form of a tunnel book but at the end, the book needed a more open structure. This book can be seen from both sides.
© 2017 Guylaine Couture, Want to be Heard
© 2017 Guylaine Couture, Want to be Heard
Guylaine’s book New dress against disease/Nouvelles robes contre la maladie makes the link between cancer in women and the humanities: art therapy, philosophy, economics, technology...
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, New dress against disease/Nouvelles robes contre la maladie
© 2016 Guylaine Couture, New dress against disease/Nouvelles robes contre la maladie
It was wonderfufl to be able to handle her beautiful book entitled Alonely as Guylaine explained the process and the story behind the book. The title is a play on the word seul/alone and isolé/lonely.
© 2011, Guylaine Couture, Alonely
© 2011 Guylaine Couture, Guylaine flipping the pages of her book Alonely
The text in her book Alonely is from Guylaine’s own diary. She wanted to draw a parallel between the serene movement of jellyfishes and other living beings in the depths of the ocean and her difficulties living a period of solitude.
I did a lot of research and drawings of the ocean and of what lives in it. After a few months of experimentation, I developed a more personal way of doing monotypes.
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Guylaine is another artist who writes detailed packing information for her delicate books when shipping them to galleries
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, I was intrigued by these tiny little houses in Guylaine's atelier, they were templates for her artists' book Everyone Needs a Home
© 2017 Guylaine Couture, Everyone Needs a Home created for the exhibition "Built" at 23 Sandy Gallery
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Guylaine Couture with her press talking of the possibility of working together next year
© 2017 Louise Levergneux, outside Guylaine's studio
Merci Guylaine pour la belle visite !