NEW ROCHELLE, NY –Rethink the way a book appears – not the words, but the form itself – and you may get a sense of the unusual artworks that will be on display at The College of New Rochelle’s Castle Gallery this fall.
Pieces inspired by books, from The Center for Book Arts in Manhattan, will be displayed this autumn, starting Tuesday, September 8, in the Gallery at 29 Castle Place.
Called “Then and Now: Ten Years of Residences at the Center for Book Arts,” the exhibit will feature more than 120 biblio-inspired works from 60 artists.
“This show really makes you think about how information is conveyed and how it is received differently based on its form. Hosting this important Book Arts exhibit in Westchester will give our students and residents a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to creative, thoughtful, and engaging art,” said Chair of Castle Gallery Board of Directors Margie Neuhaus.
These are not tomes to be read. They are works that explore the book as an item to be altered, transformed or completely re-imagined. A book’s pages may be rectangles cut from various plastic bags, or folded leaves from a beech or poplar tree.
One work of art is a swing made from pages of Moby Dick sliced into strips and twisted into rope. Another, called “Common Dictionary,” is a gumball machine in which each plastic capsule holds a slip of paper with a word in English, Chinese, and Spanish that begins and ends with similar sounds in all three languages.
“It is an art object, not just a book,” said Alexander Campos, Executive Director and Curator for The Center for Book Arts show. “It can be anything from a codex format to an accordion format to a book that’s been carved into an unbound series of prints that has a sequence to it. It could be a box with parts in it. It could include anything from paper marbling or paper treatments to relief printing, from some of type of collage layering to sculpting, or even video or new media.”
It is the first time the Center has exhibited works in Westchester since a 2010 showing at the Barbara Walters Gallery at Sarah Lawrence College.
But the Castle Gallery show is not just any exhibit. It is part of the Center for Book Art’s 40th year celebration. All of the artists whose works are exhibited have gone through one of the center’s two core programs – the Artist-in-Residence Workspace Grant program or the Scholarship for Advanced Study in Book Arts. The exhibit will include at least two works from each artist – one from when he or she was in residence, and another created years later.
The inclusion of works from several years apart is intended to show the artists’ commitment to creativity, substantive ideas, and book arts. The works are more than clever twists on what it means to be a book.
“Most importantly, it can be a catalyst for particular issues – anything from social, political, sexual identity, economics, immigration,” Campos said. “Racism, the environment, all those issues are being discussed.”
The exhibit will be shown September 8 through November 8. An opening reception will be held Sunday, September 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Alexander Campos will give a lecture related to the exhibit on October 14 at 6:45pm in Romita Auditorium.
The timing allows the exhibit to be a part of the New Rochelle Council on the Arts’ annual ArtsFest celebration, September 26 and 27, when studios, public spaces and businesses in New Rochelle and Pelham present exhibits for people to visit. The Castle Gallery will be a stop on the rounds made by a New Rochelle Culture Trolley offering hop-on, hop-off rides.