Madness was created during the pandemic and went through many forms before it became what you see here. It’s appearance and content are very much shaped by my time in isolation. Initially, I copied out the play Hamlet by hand starting in March 2020 because I was too anxious to sit and read. I also was making paper puppets for companionship. The project kept changing as events swirled around me. I struggled to make sense of the project in a world gone crazy. The text is a crazy quilt arrangement of lines from Hamlet and my writing on repeating themes of fear, disease, Black Lives Matter, Asian hate crimes, the insurrection, so much death and isolation. Madness was printed letterpress with polymer plates from Boxcar Press on Arches Text wove paper. The background pattern is made up of my renderings of tears, drops of blood, Covid-19 particles and bullet holes. The paper puppet inclusions were printed on University of Iowa Center for the Book Chancery paper and are costumed in papers of wheat straw, sisal, daylily fibers, and abaca paste papers made by Andrea Peterson. The non-adhesive covers are flax and abaca papers made by Mary Hark for the outside and flax papers from the University of Iowa Center for the Book for the inside. Encased in a cloth covered clamshell box. The book was printed in an edition of 25 copies with a few strays. Madness was funded in part by a grant from the College Book Art Association and I thank them.
Meggendorfer Artists Book Prize
My book Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, has been selected as a finalist for the Meggendorfer Artists Book Prize, awarded by the Movable Book Society. The winner will be announced at the MBS Conference in Denver, CO, on October 2, 2021. For more information on my book, click on the Books link above.
Unseen exhibit
My book Gertrude Has a Few Questions, is in an exhibit organized by 23 Sandy/form & concept at the form & concept gallery in Santa Fe, NM, August 11 – November 20, 2021. For more information about my book, click the Books link above.
Movable Medley exhibit
My book Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out is in an exhibit organized by the Abecedarian Gallery at the Arts Students League in Denver, CO, September 29 – November 7, 2021. For more information on my book, click the Books link above.
2021 International Art of the Book exhibit
My book Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out is on exhibit at the Rochester Public Library, Rochester, NY, July 9 – October 31, 2021. For more information on my book, click the Books link above.
The Book as Art v9.0:Muse
Three of my books, The Tragedy of King Lear, Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, and Gertrude Has a Few Questions are on exhibit at the Decatur Arts Alliance exhibit on Decatur, GA, August 13 – October 1, 2021. For more information on the individual books, click the Books link above.
My contributions to the Artists Book House Conversation series
I had the great pleasure of participating in the Conversations series for the Artists Book House this spring. The video is of a conversation between Jamie Thome and me. The written conversation is a set of questions posed by Shawn Sheehy and my responses. Both conversations are posted here, the link to the video first, then written conversation:
My Fine Press Book Association Keepsake
I have printed a keepsake that will appear in the upcoming deluxe edition of Parenthesis from the Fine Press Book Association https://fpba.com/about/. The idea was sparked by my work in progress titled Madness: Reading Hamlet in the Time of Covid-19 and Other Plagues. The keepsake is letterpress printed from polymer plates with pressure printing using a Vandercook SP-15 on Sakamoto heavy paper. The character depicted is Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and she is speaking one of her lines from the play. The keepsake has given rise to a side project called Gertrude Has a Few Questions.
Artists Book House Collaboration
I had the opportunity to do a collaborative project with my nephew Cy Hedayati recently. Artists Book House is a potential Book and Paper Arts Center in Evanston, IL. To see the whole project use this link: https://artistsbookhouse.org/news/2021/5/4/2qxm7fs4e3h7kbzabvr887wbl7qa54
CBAA Grant awarded
I have been awarded a 2021 Member Support grant by the College Book Art Association. I will be working to bring Madness: Reading Hamlet in the Age of Covid-19 and Other Plagues to final form. The grant will allow me to use the wonderful papers of papermakers Andrea Peterson and Mary Hark in the pages of what is planned as an edition of a letterpress printed accordion book with puppet inclusions. At the start of my pandemic year, I discovered to my horror, I was too unsettled to be able to read. I adopted all sorts of coping behaviors instead. I copied the play out word by word on a 55 foot long roll of paper and I made dancing paper puppets called the Solitude Squadron among other activities. This book has been shaped in so many ways by all the events of last year and is as much about the year as the play. I am still working on the various text elements so stay tuned.