The Sunday Paper #530

November 3, 2024

I hope you slept that extra hour last night.

“The Human Library® provides some of the most stigmatized groups in the community with a chance to be unjudged,” said Ronni Abergel, CEO and head of administration for the Copenhagen-based non-profit organization. “We’re not fighting for diversity. We’re a safe space to explore it.”

At The Human Library®, human books are volunteers with personal experience with their topic. The Human Library® is a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.

There are thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, of organizations around the world who, like The Human Library®, are working in communities large and small for the common good: neighbors helping neighbors across all kinds of divides.

As we await the outcome of the election (and who knows how long we’ll have to wait) I continue to have hope for our country and the world.

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I wrote about the recent exhibition Bark Paper a few weeks ago. Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala presents a watershed moment in global art history, sharing with the American public a history of Aboriginal Australian bark painting curated by Yolŋu knowledge holders from Arnhem Land in Northern Australia. The exhibition’s presentation culminates in New York at Asia Society, through January 5, 2025.

Yäma Munuŋgirritj, ca. 1920–1987. Yarrwiḏi-Gumatj clan. Gurruŋawuy, 1961. Natural pigments on bark. H. 28 x W. 15 in. (71.1 x 38.1 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. Edward L. Ruhe Collection, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997.

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I’m not sure whether Anchorage is a winter destination (I hope to get a note about this) but this exhibition title sounds appropriate: Frozen Forms, created in collaboration with Collective Paper Aesthetics, a Netherlands-based architectural design group, is an installation of large sculptures that evoke ice crystal formations found in snow: stellar dendrite, needle, and capped column. While snowflakes’ crystalline structure forms through bonded water molecules, these forms are shaped by interlocking modular components made of recycled cardboard. Opening soon at the Anchorage Museum: November 15, 2024 – April 6, 2025.

Image credit: Mudam Luxembourg

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If you are anywhere near Boston, I highly recommend attending this lecture on November 8th at 2:30pm Eastern. John Buchtel will present an overview of the Boston Athenaeum’s exhibition The Art of Paper: Claire Van Vliet and the Janus Press. The talk will focus on Van Vliet’s innovations in hand papermaking and her imaginative non-adhesive book structures. I so wish I lived closer! An exhibition catalog will be available for purchase, too. If you can’t make it to the lecture, the exhibition is up through December 30th.

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Paper Tidbits

• Have you had a chance to listen to my interview with Nancy Jacobi on Paper Talk?
• We’ll be making woven paper lanterns and books in a one-day online session through Maine Media Workshops in December – perfect for holiday gift giving. Join me!
• I listened to a recent episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast with Deborah Balmuth, the editor who found me many moons ago. She talks about the business of craft books (if you were ever thinking of writing one) and I was delighted that she mentioned my book Papermaking With Plants, which is one of the first craft books she acquired.

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In My Studio Shop

As the holidays approach, I’m going to be featuring a few products in my online shop.

In 2021, I created an artist’s book, called Intensio. I have six different string drawings that I am offering as artist’s proofs, which can be framed or folded and kept as a movable object. (1-3 signed and numbered copies of each image are available). Click on the first image to access the page where you can view (and purchase) all six drawings.