Artist Books

My journey into creating artist books commenced during a residency in the Bay Area in 2002. Since then, I've produced over two dozen books. I was drawn to how the packaging contributed to the content and context of each project. My fascination with narrative blossomed, leading me to use my words and collaborate with writers and poets I admire. These books are typically produced in small editions (usually 4-6 copies) or as unique pieces, with many originating from artist residencies abroad and evolving further upon my return to my Oakland studio.

Spice Box

2019 - Edition of 4
6 vials of spices in hand constructed archival board box with stab bound book made with archival ink on Moab Entrada bright rag paper, bound with thread.   Box 7" x 7" x3".  Stab bound book 6" x 4" x.5". The 6 spice vials included in Spice Box were Inspired by an artist residency in Morocco where they are commonly used in cooking and medicine: cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, cumin, paprika, and cayenne. The enclosed stab-bound handmade book describes their historic origins and uses.  Edition of 4, produced and executed in Oakland, CA. © 2019.  One copy is in the permanent collection of the Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Otto G. Richter Library, FL

Forest of Fortunes

Recent Exhibition - Melting Point Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland, Jan. 11-Feb. 10 2018 reception Jan. 13 w reading by poet Maw Shein Win  

2017
Unique
This stand-alone artist book is also a maquette for a large temporary public art project which will hopefully be realized someday. It was inspired by the bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan and the variety of kimono patterns worn there during cherry blossom season. 60 towers represent 6 continents with 12 fabrics from Japan, England, Iran, Africa, Indigenous Americans and Central/South America. Inside each tower is a fortune in the language of the country of origin of the fabric which viewers can see on the key which accompanies the box.

Printed in Oakland, CA
Closed box size 17 x 21 x 4”
Rice paper, Moab entrada bright rag paper, acrylic ink, ash, glass, felt
Box by Stephen Moore Art & Design

Blog

2012
Ink on rice paper, wood, velvet, copper
24" x 9" x 5"

While at Can Serrat residency outside of Barcelona, Spain, I recorded each days events on a 40 foot scroll of rice paper using a pictographic/automatic language I invented.   This daily rituals became a Luddite’s “blog.”   The resulting Artist’s Book, BLOG, took the form of a torah (the only scroll I grew up with) housed in a hand made plain wooden box like the coffins traditionally used by Jews.   Referencing Viktor Shklovsky, by making objects “unfamiliar” and reframing their context is part of the artistic license which inspires and energizes my practice.

Nuggets

2009
Edition of 6
Printed  on Moab Entrada Rag Paper with archival acrylic ink and Chine Collé, book cloth and leather with gold leaf.  Binding by John De Merritt.  11" x 8" x1"

A collection of drawings and small paintings inspired by “nuggets” from local news, pod casts, rumination and quotations from The Conversations: Interviews With Sixteen Contemporary Artists by Richard Whittaker made during a residency at New Pacific Studios in New Zealand.   The book opens differently from each end to accommodate the fact that some of the images are horizontal and some are vertical.

Arbres arrencats d'ametheles (Uprooted Almond Trees)

2010
With poetry  by Maw Shein Win
Edition of 6
Archival ink on Moab Entrada Natural rag paper, leather, wood, hand printed paper.   Binding by John DeMerritt. 8" x 6.5" x 1"

The genesis of this book project was an artist residency at Can Serrat International Center near Barcelona, Spain. where I spent a month there in April 2010 and the poet Maw Shein Win spent the month of July there in 2009. As we compared our experiences we became aware of our common interest in the upturned almond tree roots in a field just behind the residency property. I made detailed drawings of these roots which I later abstracted to their essence. When we met and discussed our experiences at Can Serrat we found that for each of us the roots were both aesthetically and metaphorically compelling.   In today's globalization and migration, how do we hold on to our roots? What do roots even mean?

India and Back

2005
Edition of 6
Flip calendar book.  Printed  on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper with acrylic  ink and drawing and collage.  Hand stamped cloth case  by John De Merritt. 17"x11"x.5

India and Back takes the form of a 12 month flip calendar of the year following my back injury while traveling. Each month the calendar becomes more distorted until the surgery resolves the issue and I am pain free.   In India all important decisions are made consulting a horoscope.  The monthly images are above the calendar, covered with my “back story.”  I dedicate this book to the brave souls who suffer from chronic pain. 

Unspoken Thoughts

2007
Edition E.V.  of 6

Accordion Fold book. Digital images, drawing, collage and text, printed on Crane Textured Fine Art 225 GSM, with Ultrachrome K3 Archival Ink and lithography inks. Printing and Folio Electric Arts. 12" x 10" x .25"

Those self-indulgent thoughts you beat yourself up with when you are feeling down. Things you know you either cannot or will not change. You don’t want to say them out loud because, after all, life is pretty good and this mood will pass.  As these thoughts are often hidden, I have buried the words under layers of exuberant marks and color. Life is beautiful and dark, challenging and fun, complex and simple. Unspoken Thoughts - an homage and a metaphor.  What is on your list?

Myths of the Andes

2008
Edition of 4
Archival Ink on Rag Paper with Drawing, Sewing and Stone.  Box fabrication by Magnolia Editions.  10.5" x 10.5" x .5" 

The traveler
Armed with dedicated and painstaking research
Embarks on a voyage to an ancient culture
Only to find that history (facts determined by those who write it)
And imperialist conquest
Have all but obliterated the reality of those past eras.
Looking through glasses scratched with cultural bias
But still open to experiencing the wonder of place
Which transcends all attempts to categorize, factualize, rationalize.
An outsider somehow still connected if she breathes deeply.
Peru.

10 Views of Mt Doggie

2011
Edition of 10
Archival ink on rice paper, digitally enhanced woodcuts mounted on 100% rag paper bound into a cloth covered book.  John DeMerritt bookbinding. 11" x 14"x1".

10 Views of Mt. Doggie honors the venerable tradition of such art historical giants as Monet's Views of Rouen Cathedral and Haystacks; Picasso's Las Maninas series; and most particularly Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. Experiencing a subject over time or from different perspectives offers the artist a chance for deeper involvement with and celebration of it. Mt. Doggie is seen against the backdrop of both the town and Gehry Museum at Bilbao. Like Rouen Cathedral, this has become a holy pilgrimage for artists and art appreciators since it opened 15 years ago.  Each view reconsiders the woodcut process in the 21st century, combining handwork and digital technology.

7 Days in Otranto

2015
Edition of 4
Made to look like an Italian sketchbook, 7 Days is based on my time as a Fellow at Bau Institute in Otranto, Italy.  Puglia (and Otranto) is very proud of it’s regional food, wine and heritage.   The interleaves of the book describe some of their stories and history.  The book re-imagines my experiences of Puglia (the heel of the "boot") in words and sketches.

Digital prints on Moab Moenkopi Kozo 110. Japanese Washi Paper, Italian marbleized paper and leather. Binding by Pettingell Book Bindery, Berkeley, CA. 11" x 8.5" x .1" 

The Book of Ruth

2002
Edition of 4
Boxed suite of 9 images with poetry fragments on the interleaving sheets. Printed on Somerset rag paper at Trillium Press.    Hand stamped cloth box by John DeMerritt.  20" x 16" x 1

This book is dedicated to all of the fiercely independent people who decide to stay in their own homes as they age - even after they have lost their support systems. My aunt Ruth Sher was such a person. In her day it was the fashion to write little poetic ditties and give them to friends and helpers.  Printed on the interleave pages are “age appropriate” excerpts from well known master poets. “She did not trust there would be more.”

Found

2009
Edition of 6
Archival Ink, digitally printed on Moab Entrada Rag Paper.  Binding by Magnolia Editions 8.75” x 6.25” x1"

Found still life images around New Pacific Studios in New Zealand but daily chores are always on my mind.

Going Places

2006
Edition of 4
 Accordion fold book.  Digital images, drawing, collage, handwork & text . Printed  on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag.  The cover is hand dyed Japanese rice paper.  Binding by John DeMerritt.  6" x 4.5" x .23"

When traveling we see things, have new experiences, collect mementos.  The images on the front side of the book are a metaphorical record of such a trip.  But with time these memories fade and details are lost leaving only fragments of the experience.   These are simulated on the back side of the book. (Now we have photo stream, Instagram and Facebook records too but do they help?)

Snow Lines a memory of Iceland

Snow Lines was inspired by the shocking loss of snow on Iceland's glaciers between Sher's residencies there in 2-16 and 2012.   Iceland has been called Ground Zero for climate change.  In less than 200 years the glaciers will be gone.

Edition of 4 © 2018 printed on archival rice paper in Oakland, CA.  Binding by Tiana Khran

Shhhhhhhh!

2010
Edition of 40
5" x 5"

I have always had a loud voice.  My mother didn’t like it but although she tried many things, nothing worked.   But now as my friends begin to lose their hearing, they can still hear me! Watch the video of the book with Sher narrating.

Pandora's Recipe Box

2008
Edition E.V. 2
Laminated cards printed on archival paper with archival ink.  Recipe  box calligraphy by Dena Sneider. Edition of  4.75" x 6.5" x 1

Based on images from It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris, Illustrations by Michael Emberly and statistic from the Office for Intellectual Freedom, the American Library Association. I have chosen to honor the book, the author and the illustrator as well as children who deserve the information to feel comfortable with their bodies and make responsible choices as they move into and through their adolescent years.

This informative, reassuring, responsible, warm and charming book treats the subject of sex seriously and it’s intended readers respectfully. It has won myriad honors, including awards from the School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, American Booksellers for Children, and the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Nevertheless, it has consistently been near the top of the American Library Association’s Most Challenged Book list for more than a decade.

Miniature Books

The De(con)struction of the River
2012  Edition of 10
3 accordion fold books in box covered with Japanese rice paper and tied with ribbon. Archival ink, pencil and metalic paint.  Binding by Magnolia Editions 2.5" x 2.5" x .5"

The title refers to the destruction of rivers, and in particular, the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, due to industrial/agricultural pollutants and low flow decisions. In the 3 “chapter” accordion-fold book each represents successive destruction as the image loses its representational clarity.  On another level the title refers to deconstructing an image into a more and more abstracted vision.

Beetlemania
2009
Edition of 10
Accordion fold book in slot box covered with tea stained Japanese rice paper.  Archival ink on BFK rag paper..  Binding by Magnolia Editions 2" x 2" x 2.5"

And other scientific investigations is part of a series inspired by my interest in nature and the immense variety of her creatures.

Mollusca Gastropoda
2009
Edition of 10
Accordion fold book in slot box covered with tea stained Japanese rice paper.  Archival ink on BFK rag paper..  Binding by Magnolia Editions 2" x 2" x 2.5"

Inspired by the many “night visitors” of this kind of my garden, I decided if you can’t beat ‘em, make art our of them!  The book is part of a series inspired by my interest in nature and the immense variety of her creatures.   Interestingly, snail migration has been linked to human migration.

75 Views of Mt.Fuji

2017
Edition of 10
Zooming along on the Bullet Train from Tokyo to Kyoto, Mt. Fuji suddenly looms above the surrounding landscape. This flip book is my contemporary take on and homage to 36 Views of Mt. Fuji, a series of landscape prints by the Japanese Ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760–1849)

Printed in Oakland, CA on archival photo paper, 2 x 4 x ½”

Deck of Piotr

2017
Unique
This deck of hand painted cards is an homage to a fellow artist at Gullkistan in Iceland where I was a resident in 2016.   His name Piotr and he hailed from Poland.

Acrylic paint on various rag papers
3 ¾ x 2 ¾" x ½”

Dragons to Slay
2010
Accordion fold book on tea stained paper with acrylic and ink

Musings on the way dragons can sometimes look like roots.

Bed of Verbs

2014             
Edition E.V. of 2
Artist Book with Clamshell: digital prints on Moab Entrada 190 and metal coated papers. 5.25" x 9.75" x 1"  (closed clamshell box) Made in collaboration with Brooke Holve

I travelled to Iceland with artist Brooke Holve for an artist residency during the summer of 2012. We were awed by what we saw; the geologic wonders and phantasmal forms gave us a glimpse of what the earth might have been like in its beginnings and Bed of Verbs is our collaborative result. Iceland was a “land of the verb” with underground rumblings randomly spewing out steam, lava and rocks through pockets in the earth. A land of forces not seen with verbs to describe it: burns, chills, churns, coils, cracks, crusts, cuts, erupts, oozes, pads, posts, roots, scalds, scrape, spews, sprays, steams.

Tangled Dreams

2012
Made in collaboration with Brooke Holve
Edition of 2 E.V.
Accordion fold book, archival Ink on Entrada Rag Paper, bound with various handmade papers and waxed organza.   
12" x 8" x 2",

Begun as a response to close up images of Brooke Holve’s rusted bed frame, this collaborative project evolved into a visual blending of our disparate backgrounds and an examination of memory, dreams and loss through
The Structure of Sleep
Entangled
Agitated
Torqued
Ragged
Mysterious
Embedded
Twisted
Warped
Coiled
Chaotic
Snarled

Active Response to Color

2007
Edition of 30
DVD, Color, silent, 1 1 min.

Active Response to Color is based on research of Sofie Schussberg as  interpreted by Elizabeth Sher

While Joseph Albers busied himself in his laboratory working out the formulas for his seminal work, The Interaction of Color, his 2nd wife (and former student) Sofie Schussberg, had a project of her own. Working with an almost non-existent budget, she decided to limit her research on Active Response to Color to 2 subjects: Joseph and their dog, Fritz. With this select sample she was able to prove her thesis 100 percent correct. Since that time, no one has been able to confirm, dispute or reproduce her research.  Therefore, it stands now, as it did then, on their own six feet. Active Response to Color is based on the research of Sofie Schussberg as interpreted by Elizabeth Sher