The something that you're looking for, 2008. Acrylic on canvas.16" x 18"Wendy Heldmann lives and works in Los Angeles, a city where many exist in a constant state of earthquake awareness. She has created two striking series of works, of course and never and barricades + libraries, that take the orderly world of the library and turn it upside down.We just keep taking turns, 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 24" x 20" Heldmann's post-disaster world is void of humanity. The books are rearranged naturally, landing and resting wherever the last tremor or collapse leave them. A striking reminder of the underlying...
A Place of Reading: Three Hundred Years of Reading in America
That's the title of the recently launched online exhibit from the American Antiquarian Society.Background:During the early colonial period, books were seen as rarefied objects, most prohibitively expensive, and some almost impossible to obtain no matter what the cost. In time, presses were established, trade improved, machines were invented, paper became affordable, and, finally, the price of books went down. But books were still cherished; they were read, saved, and handed down. By the early 1900s the vast majority of the American population—rich or poor, black or white, male or female—were readers. This is their story. The exhibit contains an image...
Walking in War & Peace
click to enlargeFor the next week A.K. "Mimi" Allin will be walking on a red carpet in Seattle's Occidental Park reading Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace aloud. Dressed in the fashions of the period with a custom-made book harness strapped to her body; Allin stands at one end of the red carpet waiting for someone to accompany her down the aisle.Here's how it works:Those who join me, tell me their full name and take me by the arm. As we walk, I read to them from War & Peace which is strapped to my body with a specially-designed book harness....
The Pocket Poet Portraits of Ann Mikolowski
John AsberryJohn Yau takes a look at the work of Ann Mikolowski in his piece To Have and to Hold: Ann Mikolowski's pocket portraits show two ways of looking in a mirror at the Poetry Foundation.In addition to her miniature portraits of artists and writers Mikolowski also painted large landscapes and, along with her husband, founded the Alternative Press, a seminal experimental poetry press that was at the forefront of the mail art scene of the 1960's and 70's. Headquartered in Detroit, they would ship envelopes packed with letterpress printed ephemera, bookmarks, photos, and other paper bric-a-brac to all corners...
"Books are Art Too": New Paris Gallery Mixes it Up
The inaugural exhibit at the new Paris gallery/bookshop Le Pied de Biche (“The Crowbar”) is titled “Art, Ink and Rock and Roll" and features the work of three tattoo artists.Supplementing the the exhibit is the gallery's bookstore which is loaded with underground cartoons, rare books, fanzines, theatrical jewelry and toys for adults. The gallery will also publish, print and display limited edition books.Tiffany Khalil, founder of Le Pied de Biche, believes “Books are art too,” and hopes her gallery is "a move away from the classical, sanitized gallery. The aim is to create an uninhibited space, and put forward young,...