The Edition I Made on My Summer Vacation

Most of the summer I've spent working on the book for the show that Julie Chen is organizing at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado this Winter based on the Ideation Cards that she devised with Barb Tetenbaum. I wrote about the deck in the post "A Recipe for an Artist's Book."

I started with sketches, then built a model. As I was thinking about the content, I felt the urge to draw the model. Drawing was a nice way to slow down and focus on the project.


At this point, I've printed and bound twenty books and constructed twenty holders. I'm now working on the lids, which are a bear, to put it in animal terms. Working on an edition is challenging, mostly because of the time involved creating more than one, but if you start with a good plan it can move along steadily. It becomes more efficient to do the same step twenty times than to create one entire book and box before moving on to the next. I create my own templates for measuring, for making windows, and for placement. For templates, you just have to measure once and cut, and then use that piece as a guide for all the others. Completing an edition is satisfying; you've got a whole stack of books you've made yourself.

Woods in the City is inspired by my draw from the Ideation Deck and Lebbeus Woods (see this post). Content is about a house around the corner that was demolished and turned into a garden.

Was I able to follow my draw? Pretty close.

Text: self-generated (true)
Image: none (no pictures, true)
Structure: innovative structure (tunnel book, magic wallet, carousel book, flag book, etc.) (variation on a check book/winged book, true—page 69 in Making Handmade Books, page 110 in Expressive Handmade Books)
Paper: handmade (a few pieces: inside holder; top title; true)
Technique: high-tech (letterpress, offset, printmaking, etc.) (printmaking & letterpress, true)
Color: monochromatic (browns, greens, but on different sides, true as interpreted)
Layout: random or unplanned (the model was random, then I planned the edition to be like the model, true)
Adjectives: textured; layered; impressionistic; transparent; ordinary or mundane (all included)

And so, here is my little city of books in their holders.

One book

One book, open to the front

Open to the back, side view of lid, inside of holder


And four books in their holders with their box lids

One of these books will be in the Ideation show at Abecedarian from November 1 - December 14 in Denver, Colorado. More info as we get closer to the show.

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