NMWA
is known worldwide for its peerless collection of nearly 1,000 artists’
books, a special collection catalyzed in the 1980s by NMWA curator
emerita Krystyna Wasserman. Since that time, the museum’s staff has
ensured that artists’ books are always on view in the galleries and
library, and visitors to NMWA are universally enthralled by these
fascinating objects.
Although
some artists’ books involve the time-honored processes of printing and
binding, the most dynamic examples of the medium include elements of
sculpture. Books are created through inventive techniques such as
folding, carving, piercing, pleating, and curling. NMWA’s own collection
includes works that are dramatically sculptural in form, made from
materials including linen, wood, aluminum, and semi-precious stone. The
museum also collects and exhibits zines (handmade, self-published
booklets that convey personal reflections on progressive topics) and
graphic novels.
A Book Arts Revolution,
to be on view from April to August 2027, coincides with the Museum’s
40th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the Women to Watch series.
The exhibition will focus on the place of book arts within contemporary
art practices. Books, zines, and graphic novels representing a diverse
and exhilarating range of artists, materials, techniques, and subject
matter will reflect the spirit of the new NMWA.
With thanks to Nominating Curator John Buchtel, Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections at the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts State Committee proudly introduces its 2027 Women to Watch nominees:
Amy Borezo
Borezo’s artists’ books exhibit the same structural ingenuity and
sensitive selection of appropriate materials, wedding them to her
often-abstract visual explorations of philosophical and literary
questions around such topics as artificial intelligence or a failed
Buckminster Fuller architectural project. For each of her books, Borezo
adapts book structures and materials to underscore and embody the work’s
central concept. She is also a highly sought-after edition hand
bookbinder; bindings have contributed to the success of some of the best
collaborative artists’ book projects of the past two decades.
|https://www.shelterbookworks.com/
Abigail Rorer
Rorer’s intricate prints, drawings, and watercolors center on a delight
in nature and natural forms. One of the most skilled living
practitioners of the art of wood engraving, Rorer started out in the
great tradition of book illustration. In recent years, Rorer has gone
one step further, collaborating with leading specialists in other
aspects of bookmaking to create artist’s books that integrate text and
image with material and structure to compellingly convey not only her
love of plants and animals, but also her concern over their ecosystems’
fragility.
http://theloneoakpress.com/
Sarah Hulsey
Hulsey’s sophisticated body of work leverages the unique characteristics
inherent in each artistic medium she uses—drawing, printmaking, and
book structures—to explore the complex, multi-layered worlds of the
scientific fields of linguistics and physics. Her work exhibits a
mastery of the expressive and communicative potentialities of the
hand-printed book as an artistic form: investigating ideas sequentially,
engaging an audience with interactive immediacy, slowing a reader down
and encouraging reflection.
https://sarahhulsey.com/
Anneli Skaar
Skaar’s work as a visual artist and graphic designer converge in both
her own artist’s books and her contributions to other artists’ books. In
addition to luminous paintings of landscapes and nature objects, paper
flowers of astonishing variety and verisimilitude, and commercial
graphic design, Skaar has produced three artist’s books of her own, each
an engaging multi-part book object in which Skaar imaginatively
combines text, image, materials, and form to create an artistic whole
greater than the sum of its parts, addressing some of today’s most
pressing environmental and social issues in ways that draw readers in,
captivate them, and encourage reflection.
https://www.anneliskaar.com/
Learn more about the national Book Arts Revolution exhibition
