I sincerely thank everyone for the ongoing support during a challenging year. Your efforts to communicate and staying in touch were appreciated.
Two artists whose work has been inspirational start the new year.
Monique Lallier, renowned book binder and book artist, practices her craft from her studio in North Carolina which I had the opportunity to visit in 2019. Last December, Monique emailed me her latest bindings, and I’m happy to present these bindings as part of my first post of the year.
A catalog of an exhibition at the Guilford College Art Gallery in Greensboro, NC, from October 29, 2018, to January 6, 2019, which includes 46 years of fine bindings produced by Monique Lallier is the foundation for this binding. Monique Lallier: A Retrospective is available through Oak Knoll Press.
2020 Monique Lallier. The binding is buffalo leather « reliure buffle » and the kumihimo which form her initials « ML » are inlays. The other coloured leathers are mosaics. Each binding has the same design but different in colour. The book is housed in a silk clamshell box « boitier en soie ».
We all appreciate Monique’s creative and thoughtful approaches to her binding projects. Her use of unusual materials and innovative techniques make her bindings both distinctive and dynamic. During my visit, I enjoyed Monique introducing me to the sequence of narrated and entertaining descriptions and processes included with each creative binding while perusing through the original catalog.
MONIQUE LALLIER: A RETROSPECTIVE. New Castle, DE and Greensboro, NC: Oak Knoll Press and Guilford College Art Gallery, 2018. 8.5 x 11 inches. paperback.Monique Lallier: A Retrospective is available through Oak Knoll Press.
Lallier enjoyed binding one of her favourite books in 1974, Clochemerle by Gabriel Chevalier and illustrated by Dubout. Monique mentioned the illustrations were hilarious.
2020 Monique Lallier. A traditional binding in boards « reliure traditionnelle passer en carton » with signatures mounted on guards « les cahiers monté sur onglets ». Full beige buffalo binding « reliure plein buffle beige » with leather mosaics, lacunose and four of the circles, the largest of which, are decor from the old binding. The book is currently housed in a cloth clamshell box « boitier en toile ».
2020 Monique Lallier. The front cover « plat avant » has an edge to edge lining « doublure board à bord » and fly leaves « gardes volante » in green suede.
2020 Monique Lallier. Back inside cover by Monique Lallier.
Marlene MacCallum lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada, where she focuses on her passion for producing artist’s books. Just before the holidays, Marlene invited me to view her most recent piece Shadows Cast and Present, an interactive digital artwork (please click on the title of Shadows Cast and Present to view.)
Shadows Cast and Present is a project made possible by funding from the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Originals grant program and with the invaluable assistance of Marlene’s two creative collaborators, Matthew Hollett and David Morrish. The Digital Originals program was developed to support artists promote and disseminate their work in the current Covid-19 reality. In an interesting synchronicity, Marlene had been thinking of producing a dematerialized or virtual iteration of her book works as a way to address the challenges of exhibiting and sharing art that takes the form of book-like structures.
What I enjoy about Marlene’s artists' book is the visual interpretation of personal domestic space and the ordinary stuff of daily life; and how she is fascinated by her relationship with the spaces that frame our lives and objects that fill the majority of daily routines.
I also incorporate the common day-to-day events and appreciate ordinary moments of every day, building our history, whether sensational or monotonous. I am fascinated by the concept of personal memory and identity. Those elements are exactly what grabbed my attention in Marlene’s work.
Images of the book work:
2018 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow Canto One: Still Life, by Marlene MacCullum. Handbound artist’s book with slipcase, pamphlet binding with gatefold structure, digital pigment print on Aya, 23.7 × 17.5 × 1 cm (closed dimensions), 2018. Edition of 15.
2018 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow Canto One: Still Life, detail of spread three fully opened (23.4 x 68.5 cm)
2018 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow Canto Two: Graffiti by Marlene MacCullum. Hand bound artist’s book with slipcase, accordion binding with hard covers, digital pigment print on Aya (bird images) and Niyodo (music images), slipcase constructed of stained Tyvek wrapped around eterno boards, 23.7 × 16 × 1.4 cm (closed), 2018. Edition of 15.
2018 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow Canto Two: Graffiti, detail of bird images expanded, 23.3 x 124.8 cm (expanded dimensions)
2019 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow: Incidental Music by Marlene MacCullum. Hand bound book work with image accordion suspended over text accordion. Images are digital pigment prints on Digital Aya, hand-set letterpress poem and blind embossed soundscape letterpress. Case bound with digital pigment print covers. Dimensions: 23.7 × 15.9 × 1.1 cm (closed), 23.6 × 30 cm (page spread). View of the closed piece.
2019 Marlene MacCallum. Shadow: Incidental Music. Detail of the soundscape, embossed letterpress.
Woohoo! Let’s give ourselves a round of applause for all of our accomplishments ... Being able to create, teach, sell and exhibit in 2020!
To all Health, Happiness and Tranquility for 2021.