The Sunday Paper #361

I had a lovely interview with Mindell Dubansky on Paper Talk. Mindy is head of the Sherman Fairchild Center for Book Conservation, Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she is Preservation Librarian and book conservator. She writes on the book arts, particularly in the areas of 19th century publisher’s bindings, hand papermaking, bookbinding, the history of book-shaped objects and American decorative paper arts. In 2016, Mindell had the first exhibition of her personal collection of 250 book-shaped objects at the Grolier Club in New York. She is currently working on another Grolier Club exhibition, to open in January 2023, about American decorative paper art from the 1960s through 2010, based on the Paper Legacy Project and collection that she recently created for the Watson Library. Enjoy our conversation!

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Here’s a modern-day Blook to add to Mindy’s collection.

Catherine Nash is currently exhibiting An Inner Astronomy at the Tubac Center of the Arts in Tucson, AZ. She describes the work: “… The vastness of space holds an ultimate touchstone for me: the sky is a window to the infinite. Through time, humankind has sought to explain and fathom the mystery of our being: in these bodies, on this planet, in this galaxy through mathematics and science and religion. My studies in archeo-astronomy – the exploration of how varied cultures have explained the mysteries of the stars and sky through mapping, symbols and myth – as well as my own dreaming and explorations have informed “An Inner Astronomy.”

Alex Hay’s retrospective at Peter Freeman in NYC includes the work he’s best known for, including three Paper Bag sculptures from 1968; his painting of a diner check (1966); a picture of a sheet of legal paper (1965); and a painting of a toaster (1968/2018).

Speaking of paper bags, I love this witty paper bag art that the staff prepared daily for residents at a Winnepeg retirement center to spread joy and cheer among the residents during lockdown.

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Paper Tidbits:

• Want to learn to make Japanese paper by hand? Amy Richard has an online class that begins this week.

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In the Studio:

I’ve been out of the studio this past week, visiting my mother-in-law in Northern Indiana. I brought some paper stitching with me to work on. I’m stitching the pages for my new artist’s book, Intensio (an edition of 25). This drawing, Parabolic Eye, is one of eight drawings that will appear in the book. Each drawing spans the fold and moves from chaos to order as the page is turned.

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Featured this week in my Studio shop: Playing With Paper, The Papermaker’s Companion, Prism, an artist’s book, and Try It! Shadow Ornament Tutorial.

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