Exhibits at Sherman
Current Library Exhibits
Forever Fleeting: The Complexity of Memory and its Loss
Artist Books from the Sherman Art Library Special Collection
December 12, 2023 – June 14, 2024
This exhibit uses a select group of five Artist’s Books from the Sherman Art Library Special Collections to explore memory: how do we cement our memories and, conversely, what happens when we can’t hold onto those memories?
These books creatively use translucent material, the flexibility of the English language, and unusual structures to convey, how we see it, a different aspect of memory.
Two of these books, Memory Loss and Book of Seconds, try to encapsulate the experience of dementia by including fragmented language and scattered thoughts. On the contrary, two other books represent ways that people secure their memories: in a typical book, a diary, a collection of poems (Words that Burn), or in a box, a gift, a keepsake (Haiku Box). Chapter Zero is a unique book of juxtaposed word pairings–reflecting the dichotomy of memory–the thin line between remembering and forgetting. The juxtapositions in the book also reveal a distinctive aspect of individualized memory: two people can have completely different accounts of the same event.
Curated by Library Fellows, Sarah Storms, Daniel Lin & Elizabeth Hadley. Book display stands made by the Collection Management & Preservation staff.
Book of Seconds: Memory Loss | Robbin Ami Silverberg
New York; Dobbin Books, 2005
N7433.4.S55 B66 2005
According to Silverberg, the text, which is printed, typed, and handwritten, is divided into 3 chapters that focus on memory issues: Forgetting Names, Confusing Word Order, and Ideas Without Language. Repeated phrases which are altered to the point of intelligibility bring to mind resonances with those who struggle with mental illness. What begins as the inability to remember an event ends up as an inability to use coherent language altogether.
Artist Statement:
After producing paper for 25 years, I was less challenged by what we call ‘perfect’ paper. I made translucent abaca pages with purposeful alterations: folds and creases give the paper the feel of another material. I wanted to activate the substrate, to explore my theme of failing memory. These papers suggested to me the ‘curtain falling on the last act’ I might say.
Chapter Zero | Irene Chan
Baltimore; Ch’An Press, 2002
N7433.4 C4236 C44 2002
Chapter Zero is a sculptural 4” x 4” x 1 ¼” book made of vellum containing six words and phrases. This book can be turned into 4 distinct views such that you are viewing two words backwards and one written from left to right. The position of each word changes in the four views.
Artist Statement: Book of text about nothingness “pops” into shape. Immerse in water to read.
Memory Loss | Scott McCarney
Rochester; S.L. McCarney, 1988
N7433.4 M334
Memory Loss has an “accordion structure with long pages held together with a cord which prevents it from opening to a flat sheet.” There is no “one way” to read the book, with every angle offering a different understanding of its scattered drawings, photos, and prints. Letters, poems, and phrases typed and scrawled onto both sides give a glimpse into a mind which struggles to make sense of itself.
Artist Statement:
“Memory Loss" is about my brother who had an automobile accident in 1985 that left him with a traumatic brain injury. The book is meant to be experiential, putting the viewer in the space of having only sporadic access to a lifetime of memories.
Words That Burn | Jayoung Park, Betsy Huff, Tia Chock, Justin Leitstein, Mark Delsman, Miki Matsuda, Rakhee Gupta, and Glenda Ebersole
Claremont; Scripps College Press, 1996
N7433.3 .W66 1996
Words that Burn is a collection of poems, prints, and paper made by a group of artists studying under Professor Kitty Maryatt. The book’s foreword by Jocelyn Cohen discusses the history of paper arts and its role in communication and encapsulating memory. The main body contains personal memories and ideas of the nine student authors in poem, prose, paper, and print.
Haiku Box | Alicia Bailey
Lake City; Raven Press, 1997
N7433.4 B347 H35 1997
Haiku Box is a collapsible box. Once the lid is removed, each of the four walls lay flat to reveal a book of poems attached, a set of haikus for each season: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. This box demonstrates the relationship between time, setting, and memory by revealing the associations of personal stories with different tactile and auditory experiences that are unique to each season.
Intelligent – Unconventional – Original
Artist’s Books by Priya Pereira from the Sherman Art Library Special Collection
July 17-November 30, 2023
Born in 1967 Priya Pereira is an Indian artist and co-founder of Pixie Bks in Mumbai, India. She has been described as India’s first contemporary book artist.
Pereira studied at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and in 1993 she co-founded Pixie Bks along with Tony Pereira to publish the books.
Her work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as the National Museum of Women in the Arts where an exhibition of her work was held in 2016.
In 2018 Pereira presented a TEDx talk entitled "Don't go by the book", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBm1BztVuHA
The But Book by Priya Pereira
Mumbai : Pixie Bks, 1995
N7433.3 P47 1995
A simple conjunction to the academician. A powerful tool to the politician. The word 'But' is an important link that is often used as a weapon and a pacifier. Or as a carrot and a stick-all in the same breath. Here the word 'But' serves to bind the book. To maneuver the book, mix and match the pre-but sentences with the post-but sentences and observe the toxic possibilities of the conjunction
Double-crossing a River by Priya Pereira
Mumbai : Pixie Bks, 2003
N7433.4 P4734 D68 2003
This Indian folktale is depicted by a silk cloth and hand lettered font that runs across the book. The reader needs to cross the river several times to get the plot of the story. Which incidentally is about sixteen not-so-wise, wise men trying to cross the river.
Legend has it that this folktale was created to convert locals into Christianity in the early 17th century. It is attributed to the Italian Jesuit missionary priest Fr Constantine Joseph Beschi (8 November 1680 – 4 February 1747) from Tamil Nadu also called Veeramamunivar which means father of Tamil prose. He was honored on his 339th birth anniversary in November 2019.
Ode to an onion by Priya Pereira
Mumbai : Pixie Bks, 1999
N7433.4 P4615 O34
Factory made paper is complemented by homemade onionskin paper. While it takes minutes to buy one at a shop, it took one hundred and twenty-one hours to painstakingly put together a 2.5”X 3.25” onionskin paper at home. Within its pages a charming ditty pays homage to the Mighty Onion.
Artist statement: This little book was made early in my life as a book artist and gave me the courage to stick it out during the years I wasn’t even aware that something called book arts existed.
Stone by Priya Pereira
Mumbai : Pixie Bks 2004
N7433.4 P4615 S76 2004
Stone was inspired by Irving Stone’s ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ on the life and times of Italian sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti. The book takes a circular journey starting and ending with the same page - ‘He was in love with stone.’ While the white pages are passages from the book, the grey pages are sort of a précis of the white pages.
Artist statement: While I saw stone as a cold and callous object, Michelangelo described it as fruit and meat and as light and living. I did change my point of view.
Extract from The agony and the ecstasy by Irving Stone published by Arrow. Used by permission of The Random House Group Limited.
The evil eye by Priya Pereira
Mumbai : Pixie Bks, 1999
N7433.3 P47 1999
This is a book that richly illustrates various avatars of the evil eye and thankfully offers several cures. The book is bound using a black thread that is typically used to ward off the evil eye. Interestingly, every single page of the book is formatted such that every part of the book is protected from the evil eye.
Artist statement: The birth of my first son brought into focus the prevalence of the evil eye when every little ailment was attributed to it. So I decided to find out more and document these techniques that are soon disappearing with the next generation.
Imposition by Priya Pereira
Mumbai, India : Pixie Bks, 2008
N7433.4 P46 I66 2008
This book serves to highlight the technique of punishment also known as writing "lines" in school. It monitors the numbing process of the mind. What starts innocuously as a repetition of a line gradually degenerates into an exhaustion of the words carelessly looping and sloping, and finally exhibiting the physical and mental blurring of the intellect. Which is exactly what an imposition sets out to do.
Artist, Printer, Publisher
José Clemente Orozco Farías ’85
José Clemente Orozco Farías ’85 (1960-2021) was a Mexican artist, book designer, and typographer. Clemente was the grandson of famous Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, who painted the magnificent Epic of American Civilization in 1934 in Baker-Berry Library.
Clemente attended Dartmouth as an undergraduate and majored in Art History and Studio Art. He was a renowned printmaker and publisher. He founded two printing houses in Mexico: first Taller Ditoria, and later Impronta Casa Editora, also known as Taller Impronta, both in Guadalajara, Mexico, his hometown. Clemente published many works of his own writing and art design, as well as that of others. The 32 linotype chapbooks in the Colección del Semáforo, which include works by Mexican authors as well as translations of Montaigne, Whitman, and Boccaccio, were produced by Clemente Orozco with the intention of being sold at streetlights (hence the name “Semáforo,” Spanish for streetlight). Clemente Orozco’s untimely death in January 2021 of a heart attack represented a major loss to the artist book and printing community worldwide.
Curated by Jill Baron and Laura Graveline
On display 3/16-6/25 2023
El Auge Del Libro De Artista En América Latina/The Rise of the Artists Book in Latin America
Artists books can be in inexpensive, commercially printed books based on artist’s concept; entirely handmade, sometimes fantastical versions of what a book can be; as well as classically beautiful letterpress printed tomes. These four presses show the range of formats and purpose artists books inspire.
Ediciones Vigía
Founded in 1985, in Matanzas, Cuba by the poet Alfredo Zaldivar and the artist Rolando Estevez, Ediciones Vigía began with the intention of providing a literary forum for a group of artists in Matanzas to create beautiful books. A large focus is on the production of literature for children, which is part of Cuba’s Ministry of Culture mission, along with a literary journal, La Revista del Vigía. Ediciones Vigía progressed through a severe paper shortage in Cuba, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and has continued to grow and publish when many other larger and more traditional publishers in Cuba failed. Alfredo Zaldivar attributes their success to their decisions to limit production to editions of 200. This also allows the handmade quality to be highlighted, showcasing found and recycled materials.
Ediciones Catherine DocterEdiciones Catherine Docter was a fine book press and atelier located in Antigua, Guatemala, formerly known as Libros San Cristobal. This press produced limited edition fine books and portfolios on Central American subject matter. Ediciones Catherine Docter was one of the only fine press making books about the region, in the region, and Catherine Docter has left a valuable legacy in letterpress books.
Artists' Books from Taller Lenateros, Chiapas, Mexico Founded in 1975, by the Mexican poet Ambar Past, Taller Lenateros is a cooperative artists workshop, located in the city San Cristobal, in Chiapas Mexico. The cooperative works to preserve and promote Mayan culture, primarily in the form of books, prints, and handmade paper.
Mburukujarami Kartonéra from Luque Paraguay
Miguelángel Meza is the founder of Mburukujarami Kartonéra Press in Luque Paraguay. A Guaraní poet and cultural promoter born in Caacupé, Paraguay, he has published numerous titles authored by himself and others with Mburukujarami Kartonéra in the style of European chapbooks. In Europe chapbooks were small publications, less than 40 pages. Produced cheaply, chapbooks provided affordable entertainment including political satire, children’s stories, popular songs and sometimes simple woodcut illustrations, from the 16th century into the early 20th century.
Each of these Kartonéra are printed in Paraguayan Guarani with parallel Spanish translations. Paraguayan Guarani, is a South American language that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family of the Tupian languages.
On exhibit in Berry Main Street, Baker Berry Library, March 9 – May 10 2023
Curated by Laura Graveline, designed by Dennis Grady.
Past Exhibits
The Wonder of Winter
This selection of works from the Art Special Collection in the Sherman Art Library will be on display through March 12, 2023. Each item focuses on a different aspect of winter, starting with the simplicity of the Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige. The beautiful line and colors depicted help to accent the feel of the falling snow.
By contrast, the etching Winter Evening by Henry Farrer celebrates the homeliness of a rural winter evening. Celebrating a Thoreau like version of simple country life, the etching highlights the ‘lacework’ of trees visible during the winter months
Book artist and photographer Jill Timm also celebrates the wonder of winter in three very different books. Winter White is a jewel like miniature book that features detail photographed of frost and ice on the winter landscape, a different kind of lacework than that depicted by Henry Farrar. The small book accordion fold book also can be pulled out to display snowflake cutouts on the interior.
Winter Elk highlights a different book structure, a 3D tunnel book, along with panoramic style photographs on an elk herd in winter. Tunnel books were popular in the 19th and 20th century as a way to give a sense of space and movement to photographs and Jill Timm’s version of is beautifully constructed.
Lastly, Nature’s Verses is a one of kind book Timm created, inspired by beautiful handmade papers. She augmented these papers with collage and other media and paired the pages with poems by various author’s that celebrated the seasons and beauty of nature, including the Snow Fairy by Claude McKay.
Born in Paris in 1673 Bernard Picart was a French artist who spent much of his life in Amsterdam and is most well known for his book illustrations. In a time of religious unrest in Europe, Bernard was radically committed to religious tolerance and his best known work, Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, was an attempt to document religious beliefs from around the world as objectively as possible. It is an immense work of 12 volumes and 266 engravings which he produced between 1723-1743. Picart himself never traveled outside of Europe, but relied on written accounts and sketches from travelers to India, the Americas and other regions.
He published Receuïl de Lions in 1728 as a series of 12 small engravings 13x 20cm. Three he drew himself from life, seven are engravings after Rembrandt drawings, and one is after Paulus Potter, a 17th century Dutch artist famous for his paintings of animals. This small ‘pocket edition’ was so popular Picart issued a much larger edition in 1729 of 42 prints that was 20x26.5cm.
Receuïl de Lions: dessins d’apres nature par Rembrandt et B.. Picart 1728
Sherman Art Library Special Collection N7668.L56 P53 1728
https://search.library.dartmouth.edu/permalink/01DCL_INST/1j9oqr/alma991025092119705706
The Village Churches of Santiago de Guatemala, 1524-1773
On Display in the Sherman art Library 6/12/18- 11/11/18
Curated by Laura Graveline
Pierogi Press: A Work of Art
Currently, Pierogi exhibits emerging and established artists, whose works range in varying creative mediums and styles, at their physical gallery (The Boiler) and their online gallery (Flat Files).
The exhibit was curated by Sarah Decker, MALS '16, and will be on display 3/3/17 - 6/4/17
Dédié à L’Élegance
[Dedicated to Elegance by The National Union of Intellectuals]
par L’Union Nationale des Intellectuels
On Exhibit 7/14/16 - 11/25/16
HISTORY The effects of World War II on France, along with most European countries, was devastating and left the country in a stage of stunned disbelief and social disarray. In August of 1944, France was liberated from under its four-year German occupation. In the proceeding months following this event, a rally cry was sent to reunite and rebuild France. The organization L’Union Nationale des Intellectuels (The National Union of Intellectuals), or UNI, was federated in June of 1945 for this purpose (Sapiro, 442).
SERVIR LA GRANDEU R ET LES INTÉRÊTS SUPÉRIEU RS DE LA FRANCE, C'EST ORGANISER L'EXPORTATION DE L'INTELLIGENCE Á UNE ÉPOQU E OÙ IL S'IMPOSE DE NE NÉGLIGER AUCUNE DES RESSOU RCES DE LA NATION.
MANIFESTE DE L'UNION NATI NALE DES INTELLECTUELS AVRIL 1945
TO SERVE THE GREATNESS AND SUPERIOR INTERESTS OF FRANCE, IT IS TO ORGANIZE THE EXPORT OF INTELLIGENCE IN AN ERA WHERE IT IS NECESSARY TO NOT NEGLECT NONE OF THE NATION'S RESOURCES.
The subject matter of Dédié à L’Élegance (Dedicated to Elegance) was the midinette (seamstress/working girl). Prior to WWII these women were the iconic figure of a thriving capitalistic culture that bustled with consumer goods and haute couture (Tilburg, 282). Included with this publication were shop advertisements, a gallery brochure titled: Quelques Toiles sur L’Élégance Féminine dans la Peinture (Several Painting on the Elegance of Women in Painting), and a brochure for a fashion show titled Les Robes Blanches (The White Dresses) which included the work of leading fashion designers, such as Balenciaga, Bruyère, Carven, Mad Carpentier, Maggy Rouff, Nina Ricci, Raphael, Schiaparelli, Vera Borea, and Worth. The proceeds from the publication and its contributors went to La Mansion de la Midinette.
ARTISTS The art work included in the publication were produced by renowned and emerging artists. This list includes Christian Berard, Jean Effel, André Fougeron, Valentine Hugo, Marie Laurencin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Louis Touchagues.
AUTHORS The literary ideas espoused in this publication include an expansive range of intellects such as Jean Cassou, Lisa Deharme, Paul Eluard, Boris Kochno, Galerie Maratier, Armand Salacrou, Andre Ulmann, and Jean Wiener.
REFERENCES Tilburg, Patricia. (2015). “Sa Coquetterie Tue la Faim”: Garment Workers, Lunch Reform, and the Parisian Midinette, 1896-1933.” French Historical Society, 38(2),281-309. DOI: 10.1215/00161071-2842578. Sapiro, Gièsle. (2014).The French Writer’s War 1940-1953. (V. D. Anderson & D. Cohn, Trans.). London, UK: Duke University Press. (Original work published in 1999). DOI: 10.1215/9780822395126.
Curated by Sarah M. Decker, MALS '16
Handcrafted Book Art from Cuba’s Ediciones Vigia
In 1985, a Cuban poet Alfredo Zaldivar and an artist Rolando Estevez established a literary forum for a group of Cuban artists in Matanzas, Cuba and called it Ediciones Vigía. For over twenty years now the goal for these artists has been to create beautiful handmade books. Through all of the social and political shifts, and even a severe paper shortage the artists have found ways to create works of enormous artistry, imagination, and creativity, by using found and recycled materials, such as leaves, sand, broken glass, and plastic.
Although a specific artist creates each edition, a team of artists in a publishing house in Matanzas works to create multiple copies of the book. On every book, a drawing of a lantern or oil lamp is placed as a logo for the Ediciones Vigía publications. Perhaps, this is synonymous with their missions to light the way for artists and readers to be inspired by the world around them, as well as bringing into light many important Cuban artists and authors.
Dartmouth first began to acquire these books in 2003 as a result of faculty’s growing interest in them and since then has acquired more than 100 volumes, located in the Art Special Collection of the Sherman Art Library. A selection of books will be on display in the Sherman Art Library reference room July 29 through November 30, 2015, and the whole collection can be browsed in Artstor, http://library.artstor.org/library/#3|collections|36183||Ediciones20Vigia20Artists20Books|||
This exhibit was curated by Stacey Lee ’17.
Miro cartones, 1959-1965
Dartmouth College Library received an extensive donation of art exhibition catalogues and monographs, from the library collection of Stephen Edlich. Stephen Edlich was an artist, art dealer and entrepreneur who grew up in Greenwich Village during the 1940s and 1950s. His father, Dr. Theodore J. Edlich, Jr. was a Washington Square Park doctor who worked with many local artists, including Frank Kline. He and his wife, Virginia, became patrons of the artist Franz Kline, who was a family friend and also influenced Stephen’s own art work.
Stephen exhibited with Robert Motherwell and Richard Diebenkorn and his work was published in Three Generations of American Painting: Motherwell, Diebenkorn, Edlich, Gruenebaum Gallery, 1976 [ND212 .G78 1976]. His art work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Guggenheim Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among other collections. As an art dealer, he helped build his father’s art collection as well as helped develop one of the largest Matisse bronze collections for entrepreneur and art collector Irving Deal.
Stephen built his personal art library collection, with special focus on late twentieth century art, for his own inspiration and research. The collection was donated in memory of Marsha & Stephen Edlich, by their son, Alexander R. Edlich ’96. Currently on display in the Sherman Art Library, Miró cartones, 1959-196, [ND813.M5 A4 1965] is one of the many exceptional volumes from the Edlich gift. This limited edition includes an original double page lithograph by the artist Joan Miro, printed by Fernand Mourlot, as well as 8 magnificent pochoir prints of Miro work, printed and hand colored by Daniel Jacomet. This work will be on display through June28, 2015.
Recent Exhibitions
What is a Book?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a book as : A portable volume consisting of a series of written, printed, or illustrated pages bound together for ease of reading.
Today, with the popularity of ebooks and electronic publishing, the notion of what a book is comprised of is still evolving. The idea of what a book is has also been addressed by many artists and five unique examples are on display in the Sherman Art Library from 6/19/14 – 11/26/14.
Non by Holton Rower
New York, N.Y. : Granary Books, [1995]
Mixed media artwork consisting of muslin cloth, fur, wax, linen tape, barge cement, bicycle tires and other media; enclosed in a muslin cloth wrapper.
Artist Holton Rower had been exploring non-representational abstract art, when he received a book commision from Granary Books. He decided to pursue the non-representational theme into a book format, and created the one of a kind Non.
N7433.4.R683 A4 1995
An untold story by David Colosi
Brooklyn, NY : D. Colosi, c1996.
The artist has filed each word from a story under the corresponding letter card of a Rolodex file.
N7433.4.C646 U68 1996
Duster 2 by Robbin Ami Silverberg
Brooklyn, N.Y. : Dobbin Books, 2001.
"When I was in Japan I found a dusting brush made from the pages of a cut up book. In response to this confounding choice of disposible materials, I manufactured my own dusters in this small edition"—Robbin Ami Silverberg
Numbered 12/42
N7433.4.S55 D882 2001
Portable Mayan altar and pocket books of Mayan spells
Chiapas, Mexico : Taller Leñateros, [2007].
Issued in an illustrated cardboard case (24 x 11 x 9 cm.) in the form of a traditional Mayan house (which opens to form an altar) and accompanied by: a clay, chalice-shaped incense burner, two clay candle holders in the form of animals and 12 colored candles. Texts are in Tzotzil with English translation on opposite pages.
PM4466.Z95 E57 2007
Japanese screens in miniature; six masterpieces of the Momoyama period
Rutland, Vt., C.E. Tuttle Co. [1960].
727.4 C431j
Spring Flowers : Artists Books
Recent artists' books showcasing flowers are on display in the Sherman Art Library Reference Room, Feb. 14-May 30, 2014.
Mary Jeanne Linford's Passionate Posies combines her passion for pop-up books and games with flowers. The round miniature book has four double page pop-ups: apple blossom, pansy, rose, and passion flower. Housed in a round metal box with clear glass removable lid, the book rests on the plastic see-through base that allows room for a BB game in the bottom of the metal box. The 'loves me / loves me not' game has a drawing of a daisy flower with small indentations for a BB to land in as the box is manipulated.
A Pop-Up Field Guide to North American Wildflowers by Shawn Sheehy celebrates flowers from the most showy to the most humble. Not merely a survey, this field guide includes an essay detailing a 21st century "Language of Flowers."
Poppy Field by Jill Timm is an accordion fold pocket book with each pocket containing a small print that just sparkles with color.
Faith Medicine by Jamie Weaver grew out of memories of her father that surfaced as she attended a conference on Appalachian studies that focused on herbal remedies. She recalled how her father often dug for ginseng and sassafras roots, and she created the book to explore how these herbal remendies reconnected her to memories of her father. Each recipe card has an herbal recipe on one side with an associated memory of the artist's father on the other side.
Leonardo's Codice Atlantico
The Codice Atlantico is the largest collection of Leonardo's notes and drawings ever assembled. It consists of 1119 individual sheets that include 1750 drawings and 119 pages of notes by Leonardo and is currently preserved in Milan's Amrosiana Library.
The notes and drawings were brought together and compiled into the Codice Atlantico by the 16th century sculptor Pompeo Leoni. This extraordinary work outlines Leonardo's diverse interests and knowledge of not just drawing and anatomy, but engineering, mathematics, mechanics and biology. The codex includes Leonardo's designs for war devices, as well as his designs for flying machines, bridges and buildings.
His handwritten notes include biographical anecdotes, and meditations on philosophy and mathematics. The name of codex is derived not from the Atlantic Ocean, but from its atlas like dimensions, referring to the term "atlantes", which is used in library science to represent extremely large volumes or multiple atlases.
Facsimile volumes 1 & 3 are on display in the Sherman Art Library reference room, from 10/25/13 - 1/31/14
Codice Atlantico by Leonardo da Vinci
Roma : TREC edizioni pregiate, c2003-c2007
Sherman Art Library Special Collection
NC257.L4 A4 2003d v.1-3
Tattos in Art
The centuries old practice of tattooing has become a mainstream form of expression in modern times. Once considered taboo in the Western world and a mark of status, rank, and rites of passage in non-Western cultures, tattoos have become a common denominator amongst all sexes, economic classes, and age groups. Chosen for artistic, cosmetic, and sentimental qualities, a tattoo's symbolism and significance vary greatly across space and time.
On exhibit in Sherman Art Library, 6/12/13 - 10/18/13, are works from the Art Special Collection that explore the unique history and culture of tattoo.
Curated by Leandra Barrett '15
Pop Up Books from Visionaire - 12/6/12 - 5/31/13
Visionaire - Surprise, Issue 55,
Art Special Collection
N6497 .V57 2008
Since its inception in 1991, Visionaire has offered a forum for both established and emerging artists and designers. Published three times a year, Visionaire features a different theme and format in each issue. Participating artists collaborate with Visionaire to develop personal interpretations of each theme.
On exhibit in the Sherman Art Library, are examples from Visionaire Surprise, Issue 55. The theme is pop up books, and examples on display include:
Pyongyang; Pyongyang II, diptychon by Andreas Gursky
The passing winter by Yayoi Kusama
Untitled work by Alasdair McLellan
Head on by Cai Guo-Qiang
Max Ernst's Histoire Naturelle
Artist Max Ernst (1891-1976) embraced the Surrealist movement, and in the 1920's, exploring the surrealist principle of 'psychological automatism', he developed a unique drawing technique, of pencil rubbings on paper or canvas, he called frottage. His frottage drawings resulted in a series of works that later developed into one of his most famous artists' books, Histoire Naturelle. Ernst later applied a similar technique to his paintings, which he called grattage, or scrapings.
A film, Max Ernst by Peter Schamoni (1991), includes Ernst's own explanation and demonstration of how he developed this technique.
The title for his Histoire Naturelle, is directly inspired by the famous Naturalis Historia or the Natural History by Pliny the Elder (25-79 AD/CE). Pliny's Natural History was his last great work, and is believed to have been completed around 77 AD/CE. This work was really an encyclopedia of the natural world, not just Pliny's research and observations of nature, but also how the natural world related to and inspired Roman learning and culture.
The Sherman Art Library has later editions of both Max Ernst Histoire Naturelle (c1956), and Pliny's Natural History (1634-35). These will be on display in the Sherman Art Library reference room from 8/3/12 – 11/16/12.
Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting
One of the very first examples of multi-color wood block printing, the Ten Bamboo Studio Collection of Calligraphy and Painting, was first published in China by Hu Zhengyan in the early 17th century, c. 1633. Named after the bamboo growing in front of his studio, these editions are masterpieces of color woodblock printing, and consist of eight subjects, bound as books, pairing each image with a matching poem by a master calligrapher.
The volumes are divided by the subject matter: instructions, orchids, bamboo, plums, round fans, stones, fruit, birds & flowers. The poems were chosen from a variety of old masters, and paired with water color sketches. Hu Zhengyan assembled a team of seven other artists to assist him in creating the wood blocks and calligraphy for these editions.
These volumes employed an innovative printing technique called tou-pan, that allowed for subtle, multi-color printing, and replicated the look and feel of delicate watercolor paintings. This enabled these volumes to serve as painting manual, predating the famous Mustard Seed Garden Manual of the late 16th century by several decades.
Tou-pan printing employed different sizes of blocks are designed according to the colors and shades of the painting that needs to be printed. The painting was traced onto sheets of transparent paper and the sheets are covered reversely on the blocks so that the mirror images of the designs can be carved out. Following the prescribed order, the blocks are printed onto a sheet of paper. Some blocks create overlapped areas and as a result, different shades of colors will appear and the final product will look almost exactly the same as the original painting.
Shi zhu zhai shu hua ce by Hu Zhengyan [no publication date, call #726.4 H86s] from the Sherman Art Library Special Collection will be on display in the Sherman Art Library reference room, 12/13/11 through 3/13/12
Das Turnierbuch fur Rene d'Anjou & Historia de Alejandro Magno
These two facsimiles editions from the Sherman Art Library Special Collection, of original Fifteenth Century manuscripts, are important to researchers specialized in art, history, literature and culture.The original Tournament Book of Rene d'Anjou, now kept in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg, is known throughout the world for its remarkable paintings and text. Produced in the last half of the 15th century, the manuscript contains the only version known of a poetic description of the Pas de Saumur, a joust festival that Rene d'Anjou had organized for his knights at Saumur in the year 1446. Rene d'Anjou was a pivotal figure in European history, and an ambitious sovereign as well as an educated patron of the arts. The tournaments he arranged were famous throughout Europe. The masterfully executed illustrations are based on the lost original drawings of Barthelemy d'Eyck, an excellent painter who was active for a long period at Rene's court, and the manuscript also offers a wealth of valuable material for studies in medieval heraldry, as the illustrations show a great number of coat of arms and crests.The facsimile edition of the Historia de Alejandro Magno is a copy of one the oldest and most luxurious of the many manuscripts that illustrate the story of Alexander the Great. Filled with fanciful and masterful miniatures, this work held pride of place in the library of Isabel the First of Castile (1451-1504), and is now in the Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique. This story of Alexander the Great, written in Old French prose, takes as its model the narrative text of the Prelis, a battle history written in the 10th century by Archbishop Leo of Naples. In addition to narrating historic events, its content evolved into a novel of adventure with descriptions of exotic voyages and legends that reflected the spirit of medieval society.The books will be on display in the Carpenter Hall Foyer from 8/9/2011 - 11/25/2011
The Art of Memory
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
" 'Memory' labels a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which we retain information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes. Memory is one of the most important ways by which our histories animate our current actions and experiences. Most notably, the human ability to conjure up long-gone but specific episodes of our lives is both familiar and puzzling, and is a key aspect of personal identity. Memory seems to be a source of knowledge. We remember experiences and events which are not happening now, so memory differs from perception. We remember events which really happened, so memory is unlike pure imagination. Yet, in practice, there can be close interactions between remembering, perceiving, and imagining. Remembering is often suffused with emotion, and is closely involved in both extended affective states such as love and grief, and socially significant practices such as promising and commemorating. It is essential for much reasoning and decision-making, both individual and collective. It is connected in obscure ways with dreaming. Some memories are shaped by language, others by imagery. Much of our moral and social life depends on the peculiar ways in which we are embedded in time. Memory goes wrong in mundane and minor, or in dramatic and disastrous ways."
Four artists books from the Art Special Collection in the Sherman Art Library, illustrating different aspects of memory and memory loss, are in display in the Carpenter Hall Foyer, from December 21, 2010 - April 8, 2011.
Materia Medica
The Sherman Art Library Special Collections includes outstanding manuscript facsimiles of early herbals, or Materia Medica. The term materia medica was derived from the title of a 1st century work by the Greek physician Dioscorides entitled De materia medica libri quinque in Latin, which translates as concerning medical matter in five volumes, in English.
Materia Medica has since come to refer to both ancient herbals and modern pharmacopeias. Materia Medica were among the first written works produced. These works contain physical descriptions of plants, minerals, animals, even the seasons, as well as their medicinal, culinary or toxic properties, and often include associated myths and legends.
Facsimiles on display in Carpenter Hall through 12/1/10 are:
Le livre des simples medecines. Barcelona : Moleiro Editor, c2001
Medicina antiqua : Codex Vindobonensis 93 der Oterreichischen Nationalbibliothek : Kommentar / von Hans Zotter. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, c1996
Theatrum sanitatis : Biblioteca casanatense. Barcelona : M. Moleiro Editor, S.A., c1999
Theriaka y Alexipharmaka di Nicandro. Barcelona : Moleiro, 1997
The Directed Gaze: Ursula K. LeGuin's Direction of the Road, illustrated with an anamorphic woodcut by Aaron Johnson
The word anamorphosis comes from the Greek: ana -back, and morphe -form. Viewed from a specific vantage point, the distorted image recovers a recognizable form, and often seems to lift up from the actual surface.
Anamorphic forms and devices were explored extensively during the Renaissance as scientists and artists attempted to understand how vision and perspective worked. Illustrations of early anamorphic devices by Leonardo Da Vinci, Egnatio Danti, and Pietro Accolti are displayed along with artist Aaron Johnson's contemporary anamorphic woodcut, that accompanies a special publication of Ursula K. Le Guin's short story, the Direction of the Road.
Le Guin's story of a tree's perspective of the changing 20th century world around it is perhaps uniquely suited to anamorphic illustration.
The exhibit will be displayed in the foyer of Carpenter Hall 5/14/09 - 10/23/09
The Art of Traveling
Student Travel Journals from the 2008 Art History FSP
Travelers throughout history and across the globe have often recorded their impressions in journals. This exhibition features the travel journals of thirteen of the sixteen students from the Spring '08 Art History Foreign Study Program. The journals are embellished with sketches made on site, postcards, tickets, photographs and receipts. These journals offer a glimpse into the life of Dartmouth students abroad.
This exhibition was curated by Associate Professor Angela Rosenthal, and FSP students Caroline Cima '10 and Meghan McDavid '10, with the generous help of Patrick Dunphy, Exhibitions Designer of the Hood Museum of Art.
The exhibit will be on Display in Carpenter Hall between September 18 and December 3, 2008. The opening will be on October 1, at 4:15pm.
Artists' Books from Taller Lenateros, Chiapas, Mexico
On exhibit in Carpenter Hall, Sherman Art Library 6/4/2007 - 9/24/2007
Founded in 1975, by the Mexican Poet Ambar Past, Taller Lenateros is a cooperative artists workshop, located in the city San Cristobal, in Chiapas Mexico. The cooperative works to preserve and promote Mayan culture, primarily in the form of books, prints, and handmade paper.
One of the first publications from Taller Lenateros was Bon Tintes Naturales, in 1980. Published in Spanish and Tzotzil, this manual was inexpensively produced on newsprint, and contains natural dye recipes, plant illustrations, a map for locating supplies around San Cristobal, as well as poetry and commentary. This publication was an outgrowth of the Natural Dye School, a women's cooperative established in San Cristobal, to preserve the ancient recipes and methods for naturally dyeing fibers. The school has grown into a self supporting institution, and holds workshops across Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Bon Tintes Naturales is now in a second print run.
After the success of the Natural Dye School, and the publication of the Bon Tintes Naturales, Taller Lenateros began to focus more on paper making and book production. Conjuros y Ebriedades : Cantos de Mujeres Mayas [ Conjuring Spells and Drinking Songs of Mayan Women], is one of their most important publications. Songs, poems and stories were collected from Mayan women in remote villages for 23 years, and the finished volume is the first book to be written, illustrated, and published by the Mayan people in over 1000 years
Published in Tzotzil with a Spanish translation, the paper is made from palm fronds, recycled log wood, and soot. The three-dimensional cover was created by Norwegian sculptor Gitte Daehlin and is cast from paper made of recycled cardboard boxes, corn silk and coffee.
In 1992, Taller Lenateros began published La Jicara [ the Gourd], a journal to promote the literature, history and art of the Mayan people. The first edition of 200 copies, numero zero, sold out in ten minutes . Since then, edition size has grown to 1,000 copies, and some editions are devoted to special topics, such as La Jicara 8 (1998), which is an issue devoted to celebrating peace, after the end of the civil war in Guatemala. This issue took twenty people three years to assemble. It contains 150 silk screen prints, tipped in facsimiles of letters, telegrams and postcards, from politicians, soldiers and civilians during the civil war. Books with in books have been created, and foldouts of news sheets from the era, as well as loose, one of kind prints are enclosed. The journal is wrapped with a string held in a gourd clasp, which was hand carved in the village of Rabinal in Guatemala.
This volume of the journal is a truly unique accomplishment in bookmaking.
Taller Lenateros continues to create and publish beautiful artists' books, such as Words of Chan K'in : Lacandon Jungle (2000). Created as a tribute to Chan K'in Viejo, patriarch of the Lacandon Maya, who died on the 23rd of December of 1996, at the age of 116. Issued in wrapper of molded paper, the title is printed on leaf which has been glued to box and threaded with a piece of vine. The paper was made with pansy flowers and renewable fibers from the rainforest, such as banana trunks, pine needles, oak leaves, ferns, corn husks, lichen, vines and palm fronds.
Two drawings by Hokusai
On display in Carpenter Hall July - September 2006
Two facsimiles of drawings by Hokusai from the collection of William Rothenstein Published by Essex House Press in Gloucestershire, 1910, #6 of an edition of 50
Drawing 1 _Guardian of Heaven_
The symbolic figure of a tiger, the mighty guardian of Heaven [drawn] as a vital and natural expression of forceful conviction. W. Rothenstein
Drawing 2 _A Goblin_
The furtive presence of evil . . . this drawing of a malicious spirit shows a beauty of touch set down with a marvelous precision. W. Rothenstein
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was an Edo period Japanese artist, painter, wood engraver, born in Edo (now Tokyo). Author of the 15-volume sketchbook Hokusai manga (begun in 1814) and the block prints Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, (created around 1823-1829), which includes "In the Hollow of a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa." He is still considered one of the outstanding figures of the ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world" (transient pleasure-seeking, i.e., the world of theaters, restaurants, teahouses, courtesans and geishas), school of printmaking. Hokusai is also renowned for his erotic prints in shunga style. In fact many of the prints of both Hokusai and Sharaku were actually advertisements for brothel houses and theaters, performances or idol portraits of actors and teahouse girls. His art was an important source of inspiration for many European impressionists like Claude Monet and American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903).
The largest of Hokusai's works is the 15-volume collection Hokusai Manga, a book crammed with inventive sketches that was published between 1814 -1878. Its caricatures are often considered the precedent to modern manga.
Literally translated, manga means "random (or whimsical) pictures". The word first came into common usage in the late 18th century, with the publication of such works as Suzuki Kankei's "Mankaku zuihitsu" (1771) and Santo Kyoden's picturebook "Shiji no yukikai" (1798)?and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's "Manga hyakujo" (1814) and the celebrated Hokusai manga containing assorted drawings from the sketchbook of Hokusai.
Der Rosenroman des Berthaud d'Achy & Libro del Caballero Zifar
On Display in the Carpenter Foyer, Jan. 13 - May 26 2006
The Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose) was one of the most popular French poems of the late medieval period of European history. Modeled on Ovid's Art of Love (about 1 BC), the poem is composed of more than 21,000 lines and survives in more than 300 manuscripts, including this facsimile edition of the Vatican Library's lavishly illuminated 13th century manuscript, Der Rosenroman des Berthaud d'Achy.
It was written in two stages. The first 4,058 lines, written by Guillaume de Lorris circa 1230, describes the attempts of a courtier to woo his beloved. This part of the story is set in a walled garden the interior of which represents romance, the exterior everyday life. The rose of the title is seen as a symbol of the lady's love. It is unclear whether Lorris considered his version to be incomplete. It breaks off with the rose imprisoned in the castle of Jealousy with the Lover disconsolate on the outside. The poem was taken up by Jean de Meun around 1275, an academic at the University of Paris, who continued it for another 17,724 lines, which cover religion, philosophy, history, science, sex, love, marriage, and women. Meun's discussion of love is considered more philosophical but more misogynistic and bawdy.
The work was both very popular and very controversial, but also provoked attacks many other writers and moralists of the 14th and 15th centuries, and is thought to have influenced many other authors, including Chaucer.
The Book of the Knight Zifar (also known as The Romance of the Knight Zifar) is a late 15th century, chivalresque novel that tells the story of Zifar and his family following their departure from the kingdom of Tarta hounded by misfortune. On their journey in search of a brighter future, God puts him to the test many times but Zifar accepts his misfortune with Christian resignation. Accompanied by a clever rogue, he sets off for Mentsn, a kingdom at war with invaders, and proves himself to be such a fine general that he defeats the enemy and is proclaimed king. The wife and children who had gone missing many years before then reappear. Just when the tale seems to end a new part of the story begins. His younger son, Roboan, not content with being the second son, asks his father for permission to seek new opportunities as he had done in other parts of the world. Zifar agrees but first he speaks to his children at length about their behavior in the world, how they should treat others and defend the Church, impart justice etc. Roboan sets off on his adventure and applies his father's teaching so well that he becomes the emperor of Tigrida. Only then does he agree to marry Queen Seringa, who had offered him a kingdom like his father's.
Not only does this codex tell a fascinating tale but the history of the manuscript itself is remarkable too, revealing the type of social circles likely to appreciate such a beautiful codex. Behind the adventures told in the Book of Zifar the Knight lies a perfect handbook for educating princes, hence it is no surprise that it always features on their bookshelves. The original copy of this facsimile was specially made for the library of Henry IV of Castile, hence its opulent lavishness. The original today is in the Bibliothhque nationale de France.
Drawings by Tamayo
On Display in the Carpenter Hall Foyer 6/17 - 10/30 2005
DRAWINGS BY TAMAYO By Enrique F. Gual Mexico: Ediciones Mexicanas, 1950, 1st edition, Sherman Art Library Special Collection.
This is the first published book devoted to Rufino Tamayo's drawings. These pages offer a look at Tamayo the artist, as an extraordinarily sensitive draftsman. Many of these drawings are the origins of his great murals and paintings, and offer a glimpse into the artist's creative process.
Rufino Tamayo is one of the best known Latin American artists. His work may be found in major museums such as the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico, the Philips Collection in Washington, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid as well as the Hood Museum of Art at here at Dartmouth College.
20 Years of Handmade Books from Cuba's Ediciones Vigia
Working with limited resources and recycled materials, artists from Matanzas Cuba formed an independent publishing house, Ediciones Vigia, in 1985. With use of only two machines, a borrowed mimeograph machine and typewriter, plus tremendous imagination, these artists have created limited editions of handmade, hand colored books for twenty years. Concentrating on poetry, short stories, and works for children, these books encompass a variety of formats, including sewn books, accordion style bindings, scrolls, and more.
Selections from the Sherman Art Library Special Collection will be on display in the Main Hall of Baker Library, through the summer term.
Maidu Creation Myths
On Display in the Foyer of Carpenter 10/11/2004 - 1/11/2005
Volumne I THE CREATION AS THE MAIDU TOLD IT (2002) This book is a joint effort of William Shipley¿s bilingual translation of the Maidu Creation myth and the images of Daniel O. Stolpe. Editions of sixty-five numbered copies and twenty-six lettered copies ( includes special color woodcut), Text printed in Weiss and Doulos on Arches Cover White. Four translators, two printers, and eight artist¿s copies printed for the contributors. Printed by Peter Koch of Berkeley, full linen binding by Taurus Bindery of San Francisco.
26 pages, 14 x 28 inches - 15 Illustrated pages - 2 full page woodcuts on pastedown
Volume II THE ADVERSARIES (2003) William Shipley's second volume to the Maidu/English translation of the Maidu Creation Myth with lithographs by Daniel Stolpe. Editions of sixty-five numbered and twenty-six lettered copies which include a special colored print. The edition is printed letterpress in Weiss and doulos on Arches Cover White. Four translator's, two printer's, eight artist's, and four presentation copies printed for the contributors. Letterpress printing by Peter Koch of Berkeley, and full linen binding by Taurus Bindery of San Francisco.
26 pages, 14 x 28 inches - 17 lithographs-two printed pastedown images.
The anthropologist William Shipley is the foremost expert in the Maidu language, a native American language spoken by a small group in northern California. As with many native languages, the Maidu language has been on the edge of extinction for decades, with only one or two speakers left. Shipley made it his mission to learn the language before it disappeared altogether. He has become one of the last living speakers of the language. Recently, however, he has had the good fortune of meeting and collaborating with a young Maidu of mixed blood who is committed to carrying on his work. The myths in these volumes were originally transcribed in the early 20th century; Shipley has retranslated these earlier texts from the Maidu into a more accessible form. These Volumes are a unique version of Shipley's translations, but many of these tales are also available in a more conventional form in a circulating copy in the Baker-Berry stacks.
Artist's Books by Jill Timm
What Jill Timm began with her first book in the fifth grade has come full circle with the establishment of her Mystical Places Press in Austin, Texas in 1998. The Press moved to Wenatchee, WA in 2002. The name Mystical Places reflects her dedication to the spirit and aesthetic of the natural environment. Her artist books are included in several consumer crafts and bookmaking books. Articles about her books have been published in the _Miniature Books Society_ and _The Microbibliophile_ periodicals. Her books are included in the _Twentieth Century United States Miniature Books_ by Robert Bradbury.
Please stop by the display cases in Carpenter Hall, next to the Sherman Art Library to see several examples from the Sherman Art Special Collection. This display will continue 3/26/2004 through 6/12/2004.