Marriott Library, University of Utah

Last week, in Boise, I picked up from Unbound the 3D printed pieces of the houses incorporated in my book Finding Home. Unbound is a library and facility that experiment with emerging technology. I'm enjoying the sound of my printer as I print two copies of the pages of my book.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Finding Home house pieces

It was a pleasure being back in Salt Lake City after a year of traveling, even though more time was spent with doctors, chiropractors, and my physiotherapist. I appreciated a visit to the J. Willard Marriott Library the main academic library of the University of Utah this week.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, entrance to the J Willard Marriott Library

The Book Arts Program has a fully equipped studio where artists utilize type, letterpress, photo engravings and bookbinding equipment as they combine traditional techniques with modern aesthetics and technology. 

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, the book arts studio as one walk through the door

The Program promotes involvement with the art of the book by facilitating Academic designations of Minor, a Certificate in Book Arts, and the MFA in Creative Writing & Book Arts, which are supported by classes exploring letterpress printing, bookbinding, artists' books and typography.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Chris McAfee in the book arts classroom, getting ready for a workshop on conservation

At this time of year, the Special Collection Gallery found on the fourth floor at the entrance of the Book Arts Studio is filled with student's work in book arts.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Special Collections Gallery

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, exhibitionon of students work

For you lovers of ABC books, I found one in the exhibition entitled Animal Alphabet. This artists’ book is an alternative take on a traditional abecedarian book that exposes the cruelty that animals experience every day and calls the reader to action by Sydney Porter.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Sydney Porter, Animal Alphabet

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Sydney Porter, Animal Alphabet

More books caught my attention:

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Box Sonata: at play with Plato, Quasha, and Chronostratigraphy by Mahala Kephart

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Tatiana Tyszko, Places I’ve Fallen In Love

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, another fascinating book by Hannah Harper Hansen entitled Book 3

I have taken many workshops and a full semester class on book arts with the Book Arts Program while living in Salt Lake City a few years ago. The next workshop, The Book Restructured: Wire-Edge Binding with Daniel E. Kelm is at the beginning of June. With my hectic schedule Eastbound, I will miss this wonderful workshop. Pretty shitty! But that is life!

Next week, I will have a look at some of the people in charge of the Book Arts Program and next year with no injuries to heal I will plan in advance to participate in a workshop.

More Alphabet Books

My printer is on and ready to print the first page of my last artists’ book Shadow Me. This stimulates me and frightens me at the same time. In the previous ten months, I barely turned on my printer. I only checked if the heads were clogged or blocked, lucky they were not. This is the first real print-out of a true page of a book in a year!

As I’m concentrating to make sure the page is printing properly on special paper—13 x 12 inches—enjoying the thrill of completing a task—my computer shouts out—”It’s 5 o'clock,” nudging me to get ready for a dinner out with friends.

© 2018 Michael Sutton, Louise with first print in 12 months

This week I stumbled on the software Horos—it converts MRI's and X-rays into JPG's. I was able to transform my sprained foot images to integrate them into my alphabet book. The foot is healing! So, I’m taking some time to visit a dear friend in Boise, Idaho. 

The thrill is short but exciting! since Saturday after our return, we need to pack the truck with our belongings and start our journey East.

In the meantime, I’m writing this blog on more alphabet books. Many themes have been used for alphabet books including cat activities, the Bible, Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures, baby animals, tools... And simply the 26 characters of the alphabet in strikingly attractive ways.

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© 2002 Carol Barton,  Alphabetica Synthetica, accordion book structure with pop-ups and laser printing

The book Alphabetica Synthetica’s concept was developed years ago when Carol Barton started keeping an alphabetical list of synthetic chemicals and substances.

Science and the specific field of materials engineering have always intrigued me. I find great pleasure in searching for new fabrics, laminates, plastics, and composite substances, and in seeing how these materials are then used in fashion, architecture and industrial design. I also enjoy playing with unusual materials as components in my books. In designing Alphabetica Synthetica, I’ had a wonderful time exploring the world of synthetics and imagining a future altered by these discoveries, for better or worse.

Over time the list expanded to include other fabricated or “synthesized” creations, from the unconventional to the fantastic. When Cincinnati’s Lloyd Library announced its exhibition Mining the Lloyd, I discovered the library’s holdings included a sizeable collection of chemistry texts. I realized that names from these books could augment my own alphabetical list of synthetics, and plans for an abecedarium began to take shape. The result is this playful look at a fascinating field of science.

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© 2014, Gail Murray, 

Dale Harris brought 6 members together to create the Collaborative ABC Book in Zentangle. All alphabet letters are originals, hand drawn and painted by the participants for the Invitational Group Show at Weyrich Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dale Harris bound the book once the artists completed and mailed their letters to Dale.

© 2014, left to right: Trish Meyer, Vicki Bolen, Trina Badarak Hall, Dale Harris, Ginger Rice, Marilyn Bennett, Gail Murray

© 2018 Gail Murray, this post is dedicated to Dominick who passed away May 17th in the arms of his mommy Gail

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© 1986 Scott McCarney, two volume die-cut in an edition of 300; 4 x 6 in

Scott McCarney published Alphabook 3, an alphabet book bound in a dos-à-dos accordion fold format. Alphabook 3 is part of a series of alphabets designed in book form. The letterforms are dependent upon the physicality of the book's space.

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© 2004, Laura Russell, ABC, long stitch binding into paper cover, archival digital printing on Superfine paper

Laura Russell's miniature ABC book (2 1/8” x 3” ) is an edition of 100. The book contains photographs of letters found on vintage neon signs. The alphabet letters are paired with terminology and fun facts from the fascinating world of neon artistry. A world that has changed little since the invention of the neon sign in 1910.

Thank you, everyone, for creating such inspiring work! 

Abecedaries

It feels tremendous to be on the brink of creating an artists’ book. Hopefully, I will have time to start the design process before we embark on our next trek. My traveling studio leaves Salt Lake City to go Eastbound at the end of May. 

For the present, I’m looking forward to stand or sit; and think, plan, and print. How will it feel to handle tools again? Especially the glue!!! I may choose a non-glue method of binding.

Through my research, I discovered many published alphabet/ABC artists’ books in different binding formats depending on the meaning behind the work. Some of the types of bindings used for abecedaries are the flip book, cards, tunnel book, accordion, codex, panorama concertina... to name a few.

Karen Hanmer has used different bindings for her alphabet books. In The Spectrum A to Z the letters of the alphabet are colored to run through the spectrum and back within a tunnel book format.

© 2003 Karen Hanmer, The Spectrum A to Z, pigment inkjet prints, 5 x 5 x 18", edition of 20

Another alphabet book inspired by the U.S. Patriot Act is in an accordion style binding. Patriot Alphabet incorporates words or phrases taken from the vocabulary of terrorism, homeland security, and the Iraq war.

© 2004 Karen Hanmer, Patriot Alphabet, pigment inkjet prints, open 5.75 x 66 x 3.5", closed 5.75 x 4.5x.5"

© 2004 Karen Hanmer, Patriot Alphabet, pigment inkjet prints, open 5.75 x 66 x 3.5", closed 5.75 x 4.5x.5"

Karen’s last alphabet book A2Z is in a flip book style. I had a chance to view A2Z personally at the University of Utah’s library while living in South Jordan.

© 2013 Karen Hanmer, inkjet prints, double-fan adhesive binding, 2 x 4.75 x 2”

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Another artist’s work that delighted my eyes was Shu-Ju Wang. Her theme is Belly Dancers in a pull-out accordion structure.

Alphabet for a Belly Dancer captures the essence of belly dance through wordplay and a rhythmic pattern that mimics the dance itself.

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer, wrap-around cover in Japanese Masa Unwaxed and French handmade paper finished with hand-dyed rayon ribbon, coins, and beads, the protective envelope is made with a shimmering cover stock.

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer

In Shu-Ju’s unique nonlatin character set Da(3)Pai(2), we find a full deck of 54 cards trace the evolution of 52 Chinese characters from their original pictographs to their contemporary forms. The heart and diamond suits illustrate the evolution of 26 radicals, and the spade and club suits show these radicals used in complex, combinatorial characters. Based on the book Chinese Calligraphy by Edoardo Fassioli and Guo Yu Ri Bao Zi Dian, a Chinese dictionary.

© 2003 Shu-Ju Wang, Da(3)Pai(2), wrap-around cover, cards in Evergreen Cover Aspen and Astroparche Antique Gold

Many other artists have been inspired by the theme of consonances and vowels of our language and there’s too many to show in this post. Tune in next week for more fun abecedaries.

Phoenix Book Placement

Last week was intense! My thoughts are to stop the madness and start creating, publishing and have fun with photos, I took way back when... Before the face the sand event!

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Coachella Valley, Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve, California

Snapping photos during physical therapy for my alphabet book gets me excited about working and thinking about the content and title. With a high strain sprain, I’m also taking time to enjoy and study my Sony camera with all its features. Content to learn something every day but it’s absorbing the info that is a process.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Heiden Orthopedics, Salt Lake City, Utah

On the administration side of the studio, while passing through Phoenix, I contacted the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Arizona State University Library. The result of my conversations represents the placement of two artist's books in the Book Arts Collection. The collection contains books with unusual formats about fine printing, binding, and handmade papers, it also includes pop-up books.

With this acquisition, the complete edition of Entre deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered After Image: Colour at play by Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen is part of the collection and The Blame Game: Winning Excuses and Strategies on and off the Court by Carolyn Shattuck. 

Entre deux is an interactive documentary inviting the reader to take part in a simple meal with a couple whiles being privy to their conversation on the subject of love. deux is an interactive documentary inviting the reader to take part in a simple meal with a couple whiles being privy to their conversation on the subject of love. 

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

Guadalupe was created after exploring Santa Fe, New Mexico, I created a documentary on the Virgin Mary, an image that saturates the entire city in different formats, sizes, and styles.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

I have another three weeks in Salt Lake City and looking forward to positive answers to studio visits as hiking the wonderful Wasatch Mountains is out of the question.

Predicaments Make

Still constrained by a sprained ankle, I’m unable to photograph at will, go on hikes, or even stand at a work table. 

How does an artist cope with an overwhelming circumstance? I often create out of the situation I'm presented. 

Through this pickle, I’m developing an ABC artists’ book using my ankle stretching exercises for the content. The images below are some of the elements that will be included in the pages. I have ideas for the cover by manipulating a stretch compression bandage. I’m not sure of the title, that will develop with the book.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux

© 2018 Louise Levergneux

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My predicament compelled me to think of how artists continue with their work during an illness, malaise or unfortunate event. Let me introduce a narrative from Miriam Schaer, an artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Miriam began a teaching and research adventure in Telavi. A Fulbright Fellowship enabled her to live and work, outside Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. 

© 2018 Miriam Schaer

Once in the Republic of Georgia, some 5,600 miles from home in the winter of 2017, a sore knee triggered a cascade of debilitating conditions. 

My right leg from the knee down grew so swollen I could not bend it, stand on it, or fit into a shoe. Walking was out. The pain was excruciating, an arthritic discomfort had become frighteningly serious. I decided to head home on a midnight flight.

I came to grips with the extending length of my recovery and resigned a Senior Lectureship at Columbia College Chicago. I could see it would be a few semesters before I could return.

As an artist, however, I can’t avoid making things. Usually, I’m compulsively busy making artist books, book-related sculptures, prints, and multimedia projects.

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, Miriam home studio

My home studio is well-equipped, but in rehab, my iPhone was the only tool I had to document the unfamiliar rehab environment.

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, hospital diary

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, hospital diary

Back from the hospital, mobility became my top priority. Serious art making would have to wait. Fortunately, I had committed to several projects with long lead times. The commitments turned out to be gifts and, I adapted my limited energies to them. I reverted to a trick developed as a young artist by doing one small thing and hoped each step would lead to another, and so on.

I took breaks. Some short, some longer, like binge-watching episodes of the Great British Baking Show. I allowed myself to fail and make mistakes, to take things apart and put them back together, sometimes multiple times.

However, just as my walking improved enough to hobble around, carpal tunnel syndrome developed from months of struggling, first with a walker then a cane. My ability to make small tools and accomplish anything went out the window. Instead of producing books, I was soaking my wrists in ice baths.

I turned to related work — updated my website, helped a neighbor start her own website. A two-day artists’ book workshop conducted in my studio helped  produce a simple ‘instant book.’

I pecked away at an essay for a book I’d been asked to contribute to, due later in 2018. During the summer, I started a piece, writing a little each day. I wanted to finish a draft by summer’s end knowing I would need time to go through at least three drafts. In the end, there were seven.

I felt overwhelmed by the growing list of new conditions. But once diagnosed and treated the symptoms slowly retreated. By this time, I started on an artwork for an exhibition. Feeling better but with low energy, I was still, not able to stand for prolonged periods. So, I needed to think about how I would approach the project.

I decided to try a garment; I have worked with garments in the past, usually manipulating the clothing items. This time I wanted to make something from scratch.

© Miriam Schaer, Ida's Notebook

The decision was to make a shirt and tie with the neckwear extending, like Pinocchio’s nose to an indecent length inspired by media’s attention to the reign of Trump. I entitled the piece Liar’s Couture.

© Miriam Schaer, Liar’s Couture

© Miriam Schaer, Liar’s Couture

The project was challenging, therapeutic, even fun. It showed me I was ready to get back to work even though I measure my progress by achieving a milestone at a time.

Now, more than a year after that dangerous day in Georgia, my knee needs to be replaced and my fingers are still a bit numb. But I’m hopeful.

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Artists take notice of all events or situations that arise. We create from everything that touches our souls, personalities and, environment. What have you created lately from a problematic situation, a tight spot, dilemma or a can of worms that just happen to disrupt your life on a beautiful day?

Phoenix Architecture

Sorry to have missed a week. I experienced life before the internet as I traveled back-up to Salt Lake City. Absolutely no connection for a week. Odd!

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Traveling to Phoenix, Arizona is not complete without a visit to Taliesin West, Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, and Scottsdale's only National Historic Landmark.

Taliesin West is on six hundred acres purchased around 1937 at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona. Set amid a Sonoran Desert Preserve, Wright’s home commands dramatic views of Camelback Mountain and the Valley of the Sun.

When standing on the lawn facing the desert from the main house — in Wright's own words, Taliesin West would be "a look over the rim of the world."

Eighty years after its construction, the desert still consumes Taliesin West whole. It is not until one is on its doorstep, that one can appreciate anything at all of the buildings; they so perfectly blend in with the desert. And once inside one does not visualize anything of this world from the windows in any sitting position.

Deeply connected to the desert, Taliesin West is among the most personal of the architect’s creations since it was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices.

Taliesin West is a prime example of Wright’s organic architecture in that the structures are built of the rocks and sand of the Sonoran Desert and melds to the lower McDowell Mountains. 

The next time I’m in Phoenix I would love to visit the David and Gladys Wright House. This house is a 2,500-square-foot concrete house designed and built for the architect's son in 1952. This Wright house was boarded up back in 2014. These days it has been restored and accessible for viewing. My sprained ankle is the culprit for not enjoying this architecture.

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I will be in Salt Lake City for the next couple of weeks. If you would like to introduce me to your studio, just let me know by emailing me at louiselevergneux@gmail.com

Little Things with Great Love

During my stay in Desert Hot Springs, California, I met Cathy Greenblat, Writer, Sociologist, and Photographer, through my husband’s work and game-based learning.

Since 2001, Cathy has been working to change the imagery of aging, illness and dying by combining her background as a Professor of Sociology with her photography.

Cathy’s body of work began at a municipal old age home in Mexico after she left her tenured full professorship to focus on work combining photographs and text. 

© 2004 Cathy Greenblat, Mrs Morimoto Singing, Japan

I believe this to be the most effective vehicle to open people’s eyes, literally and figuratively, providing a better way to help them “face” issues that are generally avoided. Since then I have directed my energies to the creation of photographic projects that challenge stereotypical conceptions of the aged, the infirm, and those in the terminal stages of life.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Benedicte Snoezelen, USA

I then documented a person-centered approach to Alzheimer’s care in the United States; those photographs and text appeared as a book in 2004, Alive with Alzheimer’s (University of Chicago Press). The German edition (Alzheimers und Lebensqualitat) was published in 2006 in conjunction with a three-year traveling exhibition in Germany. In recognition of that work, the University of Houston College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences awarded me the 2007 John P. McGovern Lectureship in Family, Health, and Human Values.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, "Can we use your ball?", India

Cathy has continued to photograph Alzheimer's care in the USA, in France, India, Japan, and the Dominican Republic. These photographs were presented in exhibits and are now offered in her book, Love, Loss and Laughter: Seeing Alzheimer's Differently (Globe Pequot, 2012).

© 2007 Cathy Greenblat, Rolland & his daughter at Kate's music group, USA

In both forms, they offer an additional challenge to stereotypes about Alzheimer’s disease. They show that while the losses created by degenerative brain disease are real, people with Alzheimer’s are not, as they are often depicted,  “empty shells”, completely lost. The photos show what quality healthcare looks like, and illustrate that such care allows people with Alzheimer’s disease to sustain connections to others and to their own past lives at a far higher level than is generally believed to be possible. The photographs reveal that they are capable of experiencing joy as well as sorrow, that loving care can yield loving responses and laughter.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Jacqueline laughing, France

My other project, undertaken between 2005 and 2008 focuses on end of life care. Exhibits from that project have been titled Alive at the End of Life, or Little Things with Great Love. The latter title comes from a statement by Mother Theresa "We cannot do great things, only little things with great love." This project is meant to provide insight into the ways the experience of dying can be enriched, both emotionally and intellectually, for the person who is dying and for those attached to him or her. We cannot do “the one great thing”, eliminate death, but I hope to show the important little things that are being done with great love by those who are engaged in the reconceptualization and reconstruction of the dying process. 

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Judge Pratt and his friend John Wayne, USA

As I have spoken with people with dementia, with cancer, and with AIDS and with their family members, I have seen how little prepared most of us are in terms of knowing what to do when death approaches, even when it has been coming on for some time due to a chronic illness. It is rare for people to make advance visits to places where palliative and end of life care is offered. If they visit at all, it is when someone is in need of immediate help, and then they are often so emotionally burdened that they are unable to observe and judge the quality of the services offered. I believe that my projects can help convey new information and insight to viewers not (yet) under such stress.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, "It's a DOG!!!", USA

The photographs and accompanying text provide a symbolic journey through the dying process via the representation of everyday people whose lives and deaths have been eased by the best of programs. Because of the obstacles to overcome in viewing death, I believe that still photography is a better medium for this endeavor than is film; people need time to stop and reflect on the images, to deal with their emotions and thoughts at their own pace.  

Much still remains to be done to increase both public awareness of the issues and to provide healthcare professionals with knowledge and training in dementia care and end of life care. I believe that photography can be an important tool in creating a new vision of what can be, of how to meet the growing need for quality care.  

© 2008 Cathy Greeblat, Going home after the Memory Clinic session, France

Professor Greenblat has been selected to have her work archived at the Bienecke Library at Yale University. It will be accessible in the Women in Photography International Archive, Western Americana Collection, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library/Yale University.

Thank you Cathy for such wonderful and candid photos!

Happy Easter!

Easter, the celebration of the resurrection. For me, this spring equinox is the season in which we witness new beginnings. The first light is a reminder that we are still alive and ready to breath-in new challenges and happenings. As artists what will become of our imaginations? What will emerge from our skills?

I rarely wake-up early enough to see daybreak. When we lived in South Jordan, Utah, I once chauffeured my husband to the airport, a rare occasion I caught sight of a glorious pink and blue sky before 6 am. The experience brought to fruition two artists’ book one entitled Ouest/West the other 6:45 both in a flip book format.

© 2011 Louise Levergneux, Ouest/West

© 2011 Louise Levergneux, Ouest/West

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, 6:45

Art is presumably the sole reason I get up early. In Texas, a public art piece stimulated me to photograph its lit cylinders as the sun barely risen, kissed the horizon.

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Marfa, Texas

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Marfa, Texas

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Marfa, Texas

In Arizona, it’s the intensity of the sun first thing in the morning that inspired me to photograph these photos. I also had a second reason, a request from a fellow reader for photographs of sunrises after my March 4th blog post on sunsets.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Gila Bend, Arizona

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Gila Bend, Arizona

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, sunrise in Gila Bend, Arizona

Happy Easter to all you artists, studios, and presses.

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, San Marcos Date Farm, Desert Hot Springs, California