Self-Portrait in Water

Gambier, OH: Ellen Sheffield, 2024. Softcover. Fine. Softcover. Number 1 of 4 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."

She describes this intriguing work: " 'Language is not a tool it is something we swim in' - Donnel Stern. In a shaped accordion cover with three pamphlet stitched inserts of Rives BFK paper with watercolor, gouache, graphite, pastel, acetone transfers, cliché verre and inkjet printing. My three poems, printed in Palatino, chronicle experiences with language about color as part of a multi-racial family. The book unfolds in a visual score structure with typographic fragment interludes and patterns stenciled from vintage player piano rolls." In fine condition. ARTB51526.