artists' books

EXPERIMENTAL EDITIONS

I am teaching Experimental Editions an 8-week intensive workshop in the letterpress studio
of Penland School of Crafts in the Spring 2018. The class will run from March 11-May 4th. The focus of the workshop will be creating meaningful content through experimentation. The course will cover the basics of letterpress printing and binding for editions and portfolios. Presentations, readings, and prompts will spark conversation and support individual practices and goals. The deadline to apply for scholarships is November 28th. Information to register can be found here. Non-scholarship registration will run until the class is filled.

Students of all studio backgrounds are encouraged to register. We will be looking at letterpress and artists' books within the context of contemporary art and writing. Historical examples of experimentation with text and publishing in the Dada, Fluxus, and Conceptual Art movements will also be explored. While gaining a firm understanding of traditional techniques, we will look at how artists use sound, video, and performance in tandem with the book, and ask how can craft be used to resonate and amplify the concepts in our work.

CLASS DESCRIPTION: http://penland.org/print/index.html
SCHOLARSHIPS: http://penland.org/classes/spring/spring_scholarships.html
REGISTRATION: http://penland.org/classes/spring/spring_registration.html

Class Description of Experimental Editions from the Penland Catalog

Class Description of Experimental Editions from the Penland Catalog

Pagus, 12 x 12, and Pluto

This summer/fall, I participated in two portfolio exchanges, 12 x 12 and a Pluto Print Exchange. I also have new work on in an exhibition at Pagus Gallery in Norristown. 

First, the new installation, Future Ritual is included in the exhibition PRESS PLAY at Pagus Gallery. This exhibition includes print-based works by artists Marc Blumthal, Sarah Bourne Rafferty, Marianne Dages, Michael Kowbuz, Lauren Pakradooni, and Stacy Rosende. 

:: Marianne Dages, detail of the installation Future Ritual, 2015 ::

The exhibition, curated by Lisa Sylvester, looks at the varied ways in which contemporary artists work in printmaking, and at how play and experimentation with process and materials shape meaning and provoke new questions for the artist to grapple with.

Pagus Gallery 
October 1st – November 13th 2015
619 W. Washington St.
Norristown, PA 19401

12 x 12, curated by Trevor Powers, is an artists' book/zine swap including the work of six Massachusetts and six regional/national artists that considered the number twelve in one way or another.I contributed An End, an eight page folded letterpress book that considers references time and endings. The 12th hour.

The text reads, She is the color of black burning fire and of things which have come to an end.

The image used over and over in the book is of a mirror in the process of shattering.


:: 12 x 12 box ::


:: Bottom Center, Marianne Dages, An End, 3.875” x 6.25”, 8 pages ::

The other exchange was print based, and the theme of the exchange, the planet Pluto. For this a wrote a text titled Preparation Ceremony using the Orphic Hymn to Pluto as source of ideation. The text has a futuristic tone to it, and it written like a letter from one entity to another...

My dear receiver,
It is later in life
I have accessed a powerful sequence
where the end is not a color
It makes me feel humble and chthonic
I am heavy with knowledge
like fruit
I am so secure...

The print is a 3-color letterpress monoprint and text. 

:: Marianne Dages, Preparation Ceremony, Letterpress on paper, 9" x 9", 2015 ::

Haystack, Maine

I just got back from two weeks in Maine at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. I took a class taught by Rachel Meginnes, Triple Knot: Stitching, Writing, and Conversation. It was incredibly interesting to work outside my usual medium. Although while working with thread and cloth, I did manage to turn paper into "cloth" through the technique of shifu, a spun paper thread. It was a wonderful class, full of interesting conversations and new ideas. 

And next Friday, I am driving down to Penland School of Crafts to assist Jana Harper's class The What & the Why: Books as Idea Generators...

:: branch weaving ::

:: paper weaving ::

:: lichen hanging on a lichen thread ::

:: little experiments I made in the class ::

:: Penobscot Bay ::

:: halftone colors ::

:: pink lichen ::

Start Over

A selection of images from Start Over, a collaboration between Huldra Press and Justin Staller, which we will be debuting at the Philalalia small press poetry and art book fair at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA tomorrow.

:: do-si-do ::

The structure of the book is referred to as a "do-si-do" or back to back binding. There cover is a long strip that connects the two sides of the book, two separate "stories" connected by an interest in cut-up writing.
:: dreams ::

My side of the book is a collection of dreams I've recorded over the years.


:: typewriter strip poems ::

Justin's side is a collection of cut-up poems that were written using typewriter ribbon from correspondence between himself and his grandfather.

:: typewriter type ::

The two sides are connected together through the typewriter aesthetic, in part a reference to the work of William S. Burroughs, who's own work was so deeply influenced by dreams and the cut-up writing technique.

:: dreams and the backs of wood type ::

My dream portion is illustrated with the backs of wood type. There is something very appealing to me about the idea of printing the back of letters, the part that can't be read. It is like the feeling people describe not being able to read in their dreams.

:: wood shape and handset metal type ::

:: ribbon ::

Justin's portions are illustrated within the text itself, using the actual typewriter ribbon as image. The ribbon is repeated through the cover, which itself wraps around, joins, and contains the two books.

:: on with this epic ::

Start Over will be available for viewing and sale tomorrow, Saturday September 27th at Philalalia. Following the fair, it will be available online. Edition of 40, letterpress printed, hand painted, and silkscreened.




White Lepiota

I just returned from a short residency at Penland School of Crafts. The Penland Core Retreat was a generous gift of five days of studio time for former students of the Core Fellowship Program. While there, I had the chance to meet, reconnect, and work alongside artists Jana Harper, Rachel Mauser, Beth Schaible, and Julie Leonard in the school's beautiful print studio. I am so thankful for the school for hosting the Penland Core Retreat. It's so rare to have concentrated time like this, and it allowed me to complete this book, which I've been mulling over for about a year. 

The book is inspired by the time I spent in Iceland in 2013, it is letterpress printed and hand drawn. Edition of 20. 

White Lepiota

We are walking together,
the alder and the oak.

Carrying a desert of lapwings,
under our coats.

Back to the beginning, back to the seabirds and foam.
The bull slides across the pitch ocean floor.

the names are gone.
White lepiota grows.

our mossy hearts - the grind of planets -
songs of tallow and bone.

One foot in the water - two far travelers -
setting fires along the road.

- Marianne Dages













Happenings

A few things that happened, are happening, or will be happening soon...

- If you are in Philadelphia, this Thursday September 4th is the opening reception for my two-person exhibition with Emily Cucalon at the Parkway Central Library. 


- Last week, I wrote a guest post for Fieldwork, an artwork by John Rogers and Amy Tavern that is experienced through an interactive map tracing their journey through Iceland. After exploring the map, I wrote a short piece about the connection I felt with the artists and what we collected to remember our time in Iceland. which can be read HERE.


- Next week I will be in North Carolina, for a one-week retreat/residency, generously hosted by Penland School of Crafts for former students of their Core Fellowship Program. My home base will be the letterpress studio where I plan to work on a short book and some experimental printing techniques.


- I will have a book, Oculus Song, in the Picture Books exhibit at Duke University's Power Plant Gallery, a juried exhibition of self-published and handmade photo books. The show will run mid-September through November.


- Last but not least, I will have a table at the first annual Philalalia, small press poetry and art fair on Saturday September 26 at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where Justin Staller and I will be debuting our collaborative book "Start Over"



Start Over : Part Two

Justin Staller and I have made a lot of progress on our collaboration, Start Over. The cover uses many hand elements, which contrast with the mechanical typewriter text inside. With the colors, we're trying to evoke the feeling of winter, bare branches and steel sky, the muted memory of dreams. 

 :: the cover, coming together ::

 :: my colophon text ::

 :: covers and paste ups ::

:: full sheet of cover text ::


Start Over

I'm working on a collaboration with printmaker Justin Myer Staller. We are working on a double book, two separate "stories" connected by an interest in cut-up writing. I've been working on pasting up the layout of my side of the book, which is typeset in 10 pt "Typewriter." It seems like such an odd idea for someone to have made lead type that looks exactly like typewriter text. The letters are monospaced just like they would be on a real typewriter. So odd!

:: Typewriter 10 pt lead type ::

My text is my dreams. Short pieces of writing describing dreams I've had over the last ten years. My "images" are the backs of wood type. I like the idea of printing the back of letters so that they can't be read. It makes me think of how people describe not being able to read in their dreams.

 :: illegible alphabet ::

 :: draft of a page spread ::

Start Over is the title. An infinite ribbon. Back to the dreams, every night. Start over.