Book Arts
Books can convey meaning both through the written word and illustrations,
as well as through their form, structure, and presentation. |
Catalogue of Absence
Catalogue of Absence is an installation of works that comment on the sixth great mass extinction that is currently taking place. It is asking the question of whether there will even be species in the future to catalogue. The books celebrate the connection between the physical nature of the world and art through the correlation of wave formation that manifest in accordion fold books. The absence of content reflects the dystopian realities that we may be facing as a result of environmental destruction. What flora and fauna will we be able to catalogue in 500 years?
Catalogue of Absence from Susan Striepe on Vimeo.
The Anti-Book |
The Book is Dead (long live the book?)
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This handmade artist's book is inspired by Man Ray's "Gift", a flat iron made useless through his intervention of having affixed nails to the underside of the iron. Similarly, I have made it impossible to read this book, as I have bound the written pages underneath the blank pages.
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As bookstores close down, I wonder what the future holds for books. Is our library the internet? What happens in a power surge or when the internet closes down? Will our civilization suffer the same loss as the demise as the Alexandrine library?
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The Altered Book
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Material Memory |
Looking at the future through the eyes of the past: The book originally from the 1970s, described the imagined future of technology. I have satirized a new future for it! How long will the relevancy of that future be before it too is passé? The work engages with the notions of the "shelf life" of books.
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Material Memory makes visible the way we interact with books. I find a certain magic in tracing movements that are generally invisible and the drawings that result seem to have a sense of surprising joy and playfulness that I find appealing.
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Urban Decay |
Animal Bonds |
Urban Decay uses the format of a traditional Japanese tax talley book along with unconventional natural materials as a format to convey the idea of emergent life growing from the ruins of abandonment and the neglected in-between city spaces. There is a juxtaposition of cultural and natural representations. I have used letterpress and various types of photographic transfer methods to enhance the concept of ruin, whereas the gloves act as a dynamic counterpoint.
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In Animal Bonds, I use alternative photographic techniques of solarization and the platinum palladium processes to create playful images. The work juxtaposes various symbolic elements that point to the relationships we, as humans, have with animals in terms of interconnectedness and perhaps bondage, depending on perspective.
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