Artists' Books in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library: Artists' Books by Hanmer and Stemper

Books on display in the two cases at the front of the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library included work by Karen Hanmer and Diane Stemper.

Pigment inkjet prints, 6.75" x 5.75" x 0.75" closed; 17.5" x 23" open.  Edition of 30.

Star Poems presents quotes that document response to the night sky across the ages by philosophers, artists, and poets from Plato and Byron to contemporary writers, scientists and astronauts. This text is paired with 17th century mythological images of constellation forms and images of early star gazers on a background of a NASA photograph of the Milky Way. The book can be held in the hand and read page by page like a traditional book, can be removed from its jacket and unfolded flat to reference historical astronomical charts or contemporary NASA composite photos, or can be folded into an infinite variety of sculptural shapes.

photograph and text from karenhanmer.com

Ready to play board game: pigment inkjet prints, binder’s board

18.75 x 18.75"

Edition of 20
Family scrapbook images on game board, game cards collected by moving about board contain recollections about growing up in the 1960s. 

photograph and text from karenhanmer.com

by Karen Hanmer, Glenview, IL, 2004. Edition of 20. Pigment inkjet prints, binders' board, plexiglass, ball bearing.

 "Like the child's pocket game, the viewer maneuvers the box to get each of the balls into a divot corresponding to a city mentioned in the Johnny Cash song 'Big River,' where the lovesick narrator chases his woman down the Mississippi River, missing her at every port."         

photograph and text from karenhanmer.com

Cloud Study, Diane Stemper, Oxford, OH: Plat 21 Studio, 2005. Unique book.  Cloud Study was inspired by Constable's small oil paintings of clouds that the artist saw in London.  Accordion form with slits, linoleum and digital ink jet prints on Arches and Mohawk Superfine, colored pencil.

 Final Flight by Diane Stemper, Oxford, OH: Plat 21 Studio, 2000. Unique book, meandering accordion cut from one sheet of paper, linoleum prints, graphite drawing, and Xerox on Rives BFK.  Cover is made with decorative papers and book board.

 Final Flight was inspired by a cool fall evening and the slow buzz of a bee.

   Dust Cloud, Diane Stemper, Oxford, OH: Plat 21 Studio, 2005. Unique book.  Dust Cloud was inspired by a scientific report that documented all the different types of particles that travel thousands of miles around the world with clouds.  Flag book, linoleum prints, graphite, watercolor with found and altered maps.