August at Women's Studio Workshop / July 21, 2022 by Alisa Banks

There are still a few spots left in The Book Art Dummy, a week-long workshop that I’ll be facilitating at the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) in Rosendale, New York, August 22 - 26.

The workshop will focus on the development of original content to create a dummy for a book arts project. A dummy is a mock-up or model of a book, and is created when a significant portion of the project has been resolved. The dummy functions as a general model for the final project.

Participants will identify a project through a series of exercises, and create their book dummy during the workshop. We’ll move from ideation and writing, and then to design, budgeting, and building. Attendees can expect to leave the workshop with at least one project identified, a corresponding dummy and budget projection, and a notebook of ideas, writing exercises, and handouts.

Rosendale is located in the Hudson Valley, and I am certainly looking forward to taking a break from our successive days of 100+ degree Texas heat! I hope to see you there.

Learn more about the workshop and WSW here.

Emergence In "Boundless" / June 7, 2022 by Alisa Banks

Emergence is one of the works featured in Boundless, an exhibition that “…celebrates the visionary ideals of the artist’s book which often challenge, in the best of ways, our preconceived notions of what a book can be. Boundless explores the vast field of artist’s books, but also the thinking of book artists. Each work reveals the mapping and laying bare of uncomfortable, surprising, or unexplored terrain.”

The exhibition is open from Mar 4 – Jun 22, 2022 at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Bainbridge Island, WA. Click here for details.

Quarantine Public Library / March 30, 2021 by Alisa Banks

2020 is a tribute and an offering to individuals whose lives were lost as a result of racially motivated police violence - deaths that galvanized anti-racist action across the globe and helped to bring clarity not only to the ways that racist systems are life-threatening, but also the connectedness in the ways that these systems work against indigenous and communities of color. Many of the names listed in 2020 were not mentioned in the national news cycles. They are more than a group of names, more than a number; their deaths contribute to the conversation. The image featured in 2020 is a composite of flowers grown throughout the year in my garden, my daily refuge after listening to the morning news.

I created 2020 for a special submission to the Quarantine Public Library (QPL) with the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color collective, which brings scholars of book history and print culture into conversation and collaboration with Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) book artists, papermakers, curators, letterpress printers, and printmakers to build community and support systems.

About the Quarantine Public Library

Quarantine Public Library is a repository of books made by artists. The works published here are for anyone to freely download, print and assemble—to keep or give away.

This collaborative project was dreamed up by Katie Garth and Tracy Honn in May 2020. We love artists’ books, zines, and libraries; art and poetry; words and pictures. We wanted to make something to share as many of us are staying at home, disconnected from art, books, and one another. The project is not about COVID-19, but is explicitly of its time.

QPL books can be printed individually for free or the entire library can be downloaded in one file for a small fee. All proceeds will be donated to @everyoneon a nonprofit that connects low-income families to affordable internet service and computers. Folding instructions are on the QPL website.

When is Now - Audio Recording / August 2, 2020 by Alisa Banks

When is Now

Exploding the Codex / August 10, 2019 by Alisa Banks

Book art exhibition and lecture at LSU this fall.

Poule Aye will be featured in Exploding the Codex at LSU Libraries Special Collections in Baton Rouge August 19 – December 13, 2019 at Hill Memorial Library. Celebrated artist Julie Chen of Flying Fish Press will present a talk at 5pm, Thursday, October 24 at the LSU School of the Arts. The exhibition and lecture are free and open to the public.

Poule Aye consists of one page, part of which is folded to form a “shotgun” style sharecropper’s home and part of which contains a “field” of text. A backyard chicken coop and be viewed through the front door when the book is open. The façade is an image of one of the homes that my dad lived in as a boy. Poule Aye examines ones relationship with place and identity. I am happy that this edition of Poule Aye is so near Ventress, LA, the place that inspired the story.

The Crouch Library at Baylor University / July 19, 2019 by Alisa Banks

I am very fortunate to have books in several collections. The first collection I will introduce is the collection at the Crouch Fine Arts Library (CFAL) at Baylor University in Waco, TX. The Crouch Fine Arts Library houses the music and visual arts collections and contains approximately 75,000 audio and video recordings; 95,000 music scores; and 50,000 books on the arts. CFAL's special collections include rare and unique materials dating from as early as the 11th century. I am not sure of the size of the collection, but images of many of the books are on-line. They’ve posted several clear up-close images of each book and from the looks of it, the collection is very diverse.

The library has a very informative page discussing what an artist book is, a link to images, and how to visit. I am very happy that my books Armoire, Emergence, Nan, and Cotton Heritage are housed in their collections. I confess that I have not visited the collection at Baylor in person, but plan to do so before the year is out - I can tell it will definitely be worth the drive and can’t wait to tell you about it!