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New West Coast Design: Books
Curators: Mary Austin & Kathleen Burch
In the Gallery Jan 25-Apr 25, 2008
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 Direction of the Road
Ursula K. Le Guin, short story Text printed letterpress on white linen paper from Le Papeterie Saint-Armand paper mill in Montreal, Canada. The book is sewn into Saint-Armand's Green Umbrella cover paper. The book, the anamorphic woodcut, and the reflective polymer cylinder are housed in a portfolio box covered in green Japanese cloth. Woodcut by Aaron Johnson. With a short new introduction by Le Guin. The original woodcut is seen by using a reflective polymer mirror in a technique called anamorphic art, first recorded in a codex of Leonardo Da Vinci. "With Direction of the Road, Lawrence Van Velzer and Peggy Gotthold have provided a fine example of the artist's book as an environment for reading. Through a deeply-considered and perfectly-executed application of form to content, the artists have made Ursula K. Le Guin's meditation on time a physical as well as intellectual experience. The atmosphere of the text is conveyed before the book is even opened, through the image of the narrator, an anthropomorphized tree, restored to clarity through the anamorphic device of a mirrored cylinder. "The book itself, through inspired design and use of materials, fully engages our senses: its startling lightness combined with the tactile qualities and rustling of the handmade paper are evocative of the feel, sound and weight of leaves, while the underpinnings of the book bring to mind branches and stems. Leaf representations embedded in the paper change color with the seasons as the story progresses. It all adds up to an ineffably complete experience of the text." - Steve Woodall, SFCB Artistic Director | |||
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