Library Announces Acquisitions from Bookworks 13

Thanks to Jeanne Strauss-De Groote for sending us this post:

As the library liaison for the Cincinnati Book Arts Society, and the curator of artists' books at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, I am very pleased to say that this year, the library acquired three books from the CBAS Bookworks 13 display, that will be added to the library's rich collection.

Paper Burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit: Books Transform at 1800 degrees Fahrenheit by Carol Freid is a very mysterious piece that was created after dipping a book into paper clay slip several times. The book was then dried and fired in an electric kiln. All that is left of the original book is white ash. Carol Freid lives and works in Kentucky.

Fragments of Capri, by Karen Hanmer, will complement the library's nice collection of books made by this Chicago based artist. In this small dreamlike visual object, Karen Hanmer photographed, digitally printed, and deconstructed images from a painting of an Italian landscape that hung over the artist's childhood sofa. Images were then bound into a book using the drum leaf structure.

Uncle Melvin Looks Back, by Janice Kagermeier, is a lovely accordion book with a very strong local connection: the artist captures, in a joyful and materially very satisfying way, the many stories that her uncle, Melvin, told her about growing up in Cincinnati's West End. For the covers of the book, Janice Kagermeier used images of older Cincinnati fire insurance maps, found in the library's collection.