The "Cabinets of Curiosity" of the 16th and 17th century is the jumping off point for Morrow-Cribbs. These rooms of mythical constructs blur the boundary of fact and fiction, where the real and the imagined share the stage.Morrow-Cribs says she "uses the mediums of print and the book arts (and occasionally ceramics) to create a graphic connection between the recognizable 'real' world and my invisible, 'fantasy' world.Her latest project is providing 11 aquatint prints to accompany the first book publication of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's prose poem Iskandariya. The book is designed and published by Rollin Milroy at Heavenly Monkey.Milroy says...
"We, Too, are Book Artists" An Exhibition of African American Book Art
Hats off to The Minnesota Center for Book Arts for putting this one together. It is being curated by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. and is being hailed as the first ever exhibit focusing solely on the work of African American book artists.The show contains the work of over 20 black book artists from across the nation.As one would hope, the show conveys a "strong social justice theme."MCBA Director Jeff Rathermel says of the shows participants:They're putting forth strong messages, either from a social perspective or a personal perspective..But there's a sincerity in the work that shines through. And if you,...
The Next Great Library
This is what the new National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague is going to look like when it is completed in 2011.The design is by Future Systems of London."Its unique form and curvature is a reference to baroque buildings in Prague"The "building is placed on a white unpolished marble platform, with mirror finished stainless steel wings lifted up the perimeter edges to reflect the building from different angles.It is a green building with:-carefully controlled natural lighting sufficient for reading during 70% of the library's open hours;-natural cooling and warming of incoming air through a thermal labyrinth constructed in...
From a Waste Space to a Bookshop: The Birth of the Happy Tales Bookshop
Welcome to Castle Arkdale the home of Happy Tales Bookshop in Wisconsin. Complete with moat, drawbridge and an armored Sir Kevin inside the front door.And from where hath such a fine castle of books originate from?A manure storage tank!Yep, Lenore Dickmann's husband "Lloyd, cleaned out a manure storage tank on their farm to make room for her expanding Happy Tales Bookshop.""Leonore Dickmann was surprised and delighted," when she saw her husband's handiwork which took took him 3 weeks to excavate, wax and polish it.Why the castle motif? Dickmann was researching a book on King Arthur when her husband came up...
Another TexFake? Davy Crockett Letter Questioned
No, TexFake isn't a new term coining George W. Bush's attempt at being a President it is the title of a book written in 1994 by a rare book dealer that dealt with the "scandal surrounding the 1988 discovery of forged copies of the Texas Declaration of Independence."Now almost 20 years later a recent purchase by the Texas Historical Commission has all the makings of TexFake redux.Here's what happened:-Recently, the THC paid $490, 000 for a letter written by Davey Crockett to his family days before he was killed at the Battle of the Alamo.-The state bought the letter from...