Worth Less or Worthless?

I find our society and the people who live in it to be highly amusing; the things we do and say to each other for political and monetary gains are peculiar and at times, baffling. This project was instigated by the nation’s gossip of the depreciating value of the U.S dollar; it is meant to question the behaviors of humanity and why we do what we do.

At its most basic level, a dollar bill is nothing but a piece of paper; it is worthless. It used to be that our dollar was backed by stable commodities such as gold and silver. However, we have surpassed that precedent, and live off of a fiat system which encourages our society to live beyond its means. What gives these things, these pieces of paper, any worth is the value we attribute to them. It’s the belief that they are worth something that gives them their value.

My intention for the project was to exploit the absurdity of this system and the idea that somehow our dollar is worth less when it was always worthless to begin with. The original context for the dollar bills that I created were to be crumpled up and tossed around the city, however, after a few short weeks the operation had to be shut down when someone actually tried to use one of my fake dollar bills. Instead I’ve resorted to framing the pieces along side photo-documentation of the project and placing them in a traditional gallery setting.

This piece will be shown as a diptych (two dollar bills framed in an 11x14 frame along side a photograph in a 11x24 frame) at two different galleries. The Art Trust Gallery at Meridian Bank in West Chester, PA and at 13 North Gallery in Merchantville, NJ. Opening receptions are both on October 3rd and the shows will run through the end of October.

This piece, along with two other books I've produced ("The Little Black Book" and "Her Name was Mona") will also be exhibited at Houghton College for the Homecoming Exhibition.

Books 'n Boxes

I just finished up my internship with the APS this week. Seen below are a few of the books that I made special boxes for, and also some of the books I did leather work on. I'm sad that the internship is over, but ready to go back to school. Classes start back up again next week.... I'll be in touch.



Multiple Slip-Case (covered with decorative Japanese paper)





Double Slip-Case with Wrap Around (covered with handmade paste paper)




Variation on Clamshell Box




This particular book was special in that it had an incredible amount of marginalia, which was fantastic. This book was truly loved.




Leather Consolidation

A Kiss and a Punch

When printing Letterpress, the "correct" application of pressure should be just enough for the type to "kiss" the page - enough to leave a print without creating a major imprint in the paper. However, some people like to give their type a little "punch" so that it is obvious to the viewer that the book was printed letterpress. (I actually like a little punch) These are, again, some images from the book that I restored at the APS....there was a series of five books similar to this one, all with A LOT of punch...enough to make a rubbing off of it. I thought it was great.

enjoy. (more of my own work coming soon)

Plate Close-ups

These are a few close-ups of the plates that were featured in the book I restored from the previous post. They are wonderful, I especially like the birds feet and the line quality in the trees. :)

Conservation Work at the APS

During the past four weeks I've been interning at the American Philosophical Society Library doing some conservation and preservation work. One of the projects I've been working on is a full restoration of a book; the process is shown here below. I have two weeks left at the APS before returning back to UArts for the final year of my MFA. It's a little frightening to write that last statement...but I'll keep you updated of my progress.

cheers,
AB




before & after










After tearing out the sewing and essentially, ripping the book apart from what's left of its binding, the first step is to dry-clean the pages. This process involves taking each individual page and rubbing it down with eraser crumbs.


before
dry-cleaning
after

After dry-cleaning then comes washing. I soaked the pages in deionized water (with slight agitation), drain, and repeat until the water comes through clear.



I repaired any corners that were torn with Seikishu Japanese paper and paste

Preparing my station to guard the pages

The pages that were printed with plates were separated and sewn together with a whip-stitch, rather than in folios. In order to have a consistent binding I need to guard the "plates" together to form a folio.



After all the pages were guarded and press, the book was sewn back together with a "Piano Hinge" binding, seen below. The cover material is made from Tyvek, which I dyed with Acrylic based inks.


Slap a label on it, make a nice looking clam-shell box and viola!


With most of the books that we work with at the APS our goal is to keep the integrity of the original book as much as possible. In cases such as this one, where the binding cannot be salvaged (and for learning purposes) we'll put it in a modern binding and box in order to preserve what's left of it.


good stuff, lots of fun, more to come...

A New Drawing

18x24
Strathmore Drawing paper and 0/.35 Rapidograph