Books as art

Experimental exhibition on display at the Montgomery Center for the Arts

By: Jake Uitti
   MONTGOMERY — Inside the Montgomery Center for the Arts, a medium-sized cream-colored house nestled off Montgomery Road, there is a new exhibition of "Books as Objects of Art." These unique works by 15 artists are displayed in a room with wood floors and sunlight coming through a large glass window that illuminates the setting.
   Although books are almost as common as words today, these specific books attempt to defy normal conventions. They express notions on life, birth and death, nature, fire, and even the New York City skyline through three-dimensional configurations that surprise the viewer like a painting or a sculpture might.
   As Debra Weier, author of "Life, Death, Life" and "Boxes," explained, "In 1970, the book-arts movement flourished out of the ‘Beau Livre’ tradition in France by earlier artists like Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. Later, the form became more experimental, and less traditional."
   Ms. Weier’s own pieces involve intricate pop-up art. In her book, "Boxes," she began with a single piece of string on the first black page. With each page, however, the image progressed more and more elaborately, culminating in many arm-like lines with thin white string woven throughout. The idea is to capture a story of the image without the need for a word, to allow the viewer to make his or her own associations to the story, Ms. Weier explained.
   Lore Lindenfeld, the exhibition’s curator, agreed that was the goal.
   "The emphasis is not on text, but on visual images through construction," she said. "I am a member of the exhibition committee here in Montgomery. We try to find exhibits of special interest, ones that are unusual, unshown and new to the community. We wanted to create awareness of this new art."
   The art of construction was not taken lightly by any artist. Many of the books on display look more like small boxes, or cabinets. These works are dubbed "altar boxes," and are complex wooden images with delicate paper attached to the sides of the altar box. Reds, yellows and light blues adorn the sides of some of the boxes, as well as pictures of birds in flight and other animals crouching, sometimes all on just one box.
   Another artist, Patricia Malarcher, used cloth to create her "Day Books," which are more like visual diaries.
   "Mine are like sketch books which came about from getting things from the sidewalks and the ground during a specific summer," Ms. Malarcher said. "They represent what you would find during a certain season."
   Indeed, her books even included separated cicada wings from the summer of 2004, as well as discarded wrappers and magazine pictures. "They are like field journals," Ms. Malarcher said. "The point is to capture a moment to carry into something else."
   During the reception for the exhibition on Sunday, there were about 30 people inspecting the art at any given time. The art ranged from distorted images of red faces on tan paper, inspired by what artist Pamela Scheinman saw in Mexico City, to accordion-style binding with New York City telephone-book pages used as hard-cover backing, to embossed etchings of lizards.
   Truly, Ms. Lindenfeld said, these works are not limited to just words. Their communicative ability relies on provocative images, which may be arranged sequentially or in arbitrary order.
   "Book artists today have changed our concept of books as literary works and have opened up a new world of visual inventions," Ms. Lindenfeld said.
   "Books as Objects of Art" will be on display until Dec. 23. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.