Geography of Lost

Gambier, OH: Ellen Sheffield, 2021. Number 9 of 18 copies signed and numbered by the book artist. Ellen writes about her book arts: "As a visual artist, a maker, and a noticer of surfaces, images, words and spaces, one of my affinities is for fossil records such as dictionaries and encyclopedias where words are alphabetized, indexed, and otherwise removed from traditional narrative structures. As noted in a recent feature article on artists' archives, if you look up "abacus," "alligator," or "akimbo" in an old Webster's dictionary, you will see my college faculty advisor's illustrations, "providing a visual definition of those words." Professor Anita Rogoff deepened my text/image obsession. Many of my artist's books are rooted in these early experiences with wordplay and disrupted narrative. They are investigations of letterform perception, of reading comprehension, and of giving tangible form to the poet's quiet voice. By physically dismantling the book structure and recombining its parts (spine, page, table of contents, etc.), meaning is reframed through layered intersections of art, typography, and page design. This new configuration then become the larger field or "page" through which context is revealed or veiled, and our understanding of words and the reading process is altered."

In the colophon she describes this intriguing book containing her poem. She writes that the text is a poem inspired by an article on Lost Person Behavior, the science of knowing where to search for someone based on which of 41 profiles applies. Implicit in my poem are hard things, feeling forlorn when contemplating a family history...of mostly unseen manifestations of hopelessness...Pulling apart and fracturing my poem's lines set them adrift amid images of my aerial snow-covered landscapes photographed on a winter flight. The work has two overlapping pamphlets on Unryu & Strathmore tracing paper with a Haijiro In a tri-fold black Khadi paper box enclosure, with inkjet prints of the artist's ariel photos, and letterpress printed text of the artist's poem. In fine condition. Measures 8.5 x 5.75 inches. ARTB/042726.