The Book as Art

http://www.nmwa.org/exhibition/detail.asp?exhibitid=150

Click on this link to see a sample of the fabulous "The Book as Art" exhibition currently showing at the National Museum of Women in Art in DC. The interactive page turner feature is so great! Alas, the exhibit itself runs only through February 4, 2007. I finally got to see it this afternoon, and it is one of the best and most mind-blowing art exhibits I've ever seen anywhere.

It's been especially enjoyable for me personally to see these marvelous handmade books. One of my first attempts to write a book resulted not only in writing the story but also in making it into a physical book, as well, in collaboration with Sister David, C.S.J., aka Martha Greenwood, a graduate of St. John's Academy in Jamestown, ND, in 1954. Martha and I were born 16 days apart in December, 1936, and we both entered the community of the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul, MN, on September 8, 1954. As novices, we were assigned at various times to work in the library. This involved not only typing a book pocket for the back of each new book but also repairing books. We learned how to make a book from scratch by replacing torn covers and reinserting loose pages. Martha did the fabulous calligraphy for this book...I forget the exact title...Agnes...maybe? She also did the calligraphy for our second and final book, but goddess knows what the title of THAT one was. We left the books behind when we left the convent...I in 1959, Martha a few years later. The books probably bit the dust somewhere along the way.

Martha is now a wife, mother of three children, and grandmother of three, also, including the fabulous Ruby, age 9. She is retired from long service as a teacher of English as a second language with the public schools in her town and is currently several years deep into a collossal family history project. A vastly talented artist and musician, she gave up both while raising her family. Now she's passed on some of her gifts to Ruby by teaching her to play both the recorder and the violin. She also is probably the very best cook I'm privileged to know personally. When they moved into their present house, they tore out half the downstairs and made it into a kitchen, complete with a commercial range (six burners, two ovens, and a raised griddle).