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23/1/2000

Highlights of artist's

National Museum Women, Washington

The National Museum of Women in the Arts Library and Research Center (LRC) showcases examples from its collection of more than 500 unique and limited edition artists' books to mark the 12th annual exhibition in the Book as Art series. On view January 24-July 1, 2000, Book as Art XII includes 50 works in various media that unite the talents of American and international visual and literary artists.

In 1985 the first artist's book was purchased for the LRC. This illustrated volume of poetry by Meret Oppenheim, entitled Caroline, will be featured in the exhibition, along with other early additions to the collection by Italian visual poets Mirella Bentivoglio and Elisabetta Gut. Bentivoglio's To Malherbe is a carved pink marble memorial with an excerpt from a poem by François de Malherbe that compares the brief life of its heroine to that of a rose. With Book in the Cage, Gut makes a statement about the liberty of ideas, while her Seed-Book, bound in the shell of a split coconut, provides a tangible metaphor for the kernel from which creativity grows.

Many artists' books have been inspired by works of art, literature, and music, while others are illustrations of favorite poems or stories. The Merz Sonata by Debra Weier is a tribute to Dada master Kurt Schwitters, who elevated collage to a true art form. Weier incorporates glued bits of paper, ticket stubs, and pop-ups into her visual interpretation of Jerome Rothenberg's poem. Jenny Hunter Groat collaborates with poet Wendell Berry in A Vision, in which seven poems extolling the beauty and vulnerability of nature are transcribed on separate scrolls folded within the book.

Pamela Spitzmueller was inspired to create her intimate British Museum Memoir after a visit to the London museum, where objects in exhibition cases tantalize and invite the visitor, but are never fully revealed. In a similar fashion, the delicate, crumpled pages of the work, bound between shiny copper covers, fascinate and beguile the viewer, but never fully disclose the artist's secret.

Recently acquired books include Octopus by Julie Chen and Elizabeth McDevitt and The Caterpillar Who Is a Corps de Ballet by Lois Morrison, both of which feature protagonists from the animal kingdom. The poem in Octopus is read by extending the tentacle-pages of the book, while its dark blue color evokes the depths of the ocean. The title character in Morrison's book is a charming ballerina who has adorned her ten legs with pink slippers. When interviewed by the press, the caterpillar-ballerina nostalgically remembers dancing with the Sergei Diaghilev, Agnes DeMille, and Jerome Robbins ballet ensembles, and reassures the viewer that she is going to turn into a very beautiful butterfly some day.

Book as Art XII is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, with funds provided by the Library Fellows. Curator of the exhibition is Krystyna Wasserman, director of the Library and Research Center.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is a private, nonprofit museum established in 1981 to recognize the outstanding achievements of women in the creative arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts 1250 New York Avenue, N:W: Washington, DC 20005-3920 t. 202 783-5000

Open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sunday from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m.

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