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The Williams Center Art Gallery is calling for entries for a juried exhibition of artists’ books, Meraviglia: Innovations in the Book Arts, which will take place Jan. 2-22.
The exhibition juror is book artist Liz Mitchell and the application deadline is Sunday, Oct. 9. The exhibit is open to artists who live or work in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A link to a prospectus and entry forms can be found by visiting www.lafayette.edu, Williams Center for the Arts, Art Gallery, or by contacting the gallery at artgallery@Lafayette.edu or (610) 330-5361.
Mitchell will give an introduction to book arts 7-9 p.m. Monday in Williams Center for the Arts room 108. She will bring examples of artists’ books, show slides of additional books, and lead a brief bookmaking workshop. Her presentation is free and open to the public. Please call or email the gallery to register.
Meraviglia will investigate the nature of the book as a format for artistic self-expression. Work is sought that will push the meaning of what is commonly understood to be a book, creating new definitions and pushing the boundaries through scale, content, and complexity. Books are sought that are innovative engineering wonders and transformational alterations that will stretch the imagination of both artist and viewer.
“There is a universal connection to books and the personal physical response that occurs when content is considered and books are held as intimate objects,” says Mitchell.“What is it that defines the unique book made by artists today?”
The exhibition’s title, Meraviglia, is an Italian word meaning “wonder, astonishment,” with connotations of awe and the excitement of discovery. The exhibit will take a look at unique book structures and the stories contained within. Artists are asked to respond to this theme as it relates to structure, form, and content as an integrated whole.
Mitchell creates artist’s books and collage at her studio in Pittstown, N.J. She has exhibited her work extensively and is included in the collections of Johnson & Johnson, William Paterson University, Seton Hall University, Pennsylvania Power and Light, and Lafayette’s Skillman Library and Experimental Printmaking Institute, among others. She teaches book arts programs to children and adults. Mitchell presented her lecture and workshop “Telling Stories: Literacy through Personal Story Telling and the Book Arts” at the 2005 Global Understanding Conference at Monmouth University, Monmouth, N.J.
The exhibition is part of Lafayette’s biennial Roethke Humanities Festival, themed this year as The Book Re-Visioned: Crossroads of Traditions and Technologies, a yearlong celebration of the book. An updated schedule of festival activities can be found at the Williams Center web site.
The Williams Center Galleryis funded in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.