Linda Falkenstein
There's more to books than words.
, where most of the sessions are centered on authors reading their prose or poetry aloud. This session was about the book itself. The book as object. Books separated from the words they usually contain.
The Guild, a local book-making collective, presented its display "Changelings: Artists' Books That Transform and Inspire," with twisty, 3-D accordian and pleated works from Suzanne Berland, Susie Carlson, Debby Henning, Nancee Wipperfurth Killoran, Laura Komai, Kathy Malkasian, Petra Press, Cathy Rocca, Karen Timm, Marilyn Wedberg, Carey Weiler and Kristin Yates.
In addition to the book art displayed under glass, there were samples of these origami-like book-forms that visitors could touch, flip through and play with (wearing cotton gloves) and a table where you could do a little bookmaking yourself with a single sheet of paper.
Plenty of people partook of the bookmaking exercise. I myself discovered a distinct inability to follow clearly expressed instructions when they involved the spatial relationships between various quadrants of a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. Nonetheless I left with my own crooked little transformative book.
Not only are the book on displays art that stands alone, it's nice to include the physical book in the festival. There are a lot of folks (like Lewis Buzbee, who reads from his book The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop Saturday morning at 10 a.m.) who appreciate the sensual aspect of touching, choosing, and reading beautiful books.
The Bone Folders' exhibit will be on display at the Kohler Art Library through October 30, and an online exhibit is offered through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. But you have missed the chance to have the group help you make your own book.
