ARCH
– Out of Print –
On January 7, 2010, just days before class was to start, The Los Angeles Times published a fascinating article on contemporary women architects, highlighting a striking building by Jeannie Gang. Serendipitously, Lori Bettison-Varga, the new President of Scripps College, chose “The Genius of Women” as her inaugural theme earlier this year! This gave us the perfect inspiration for our artist book: the genius of women architects. After extensive research and class discussion, a mission statement for the book evolved: architecture, like books, is a delicate balancing act between stability and motion, interior and exterior, aesthetic values and structural practicalities. Books, like buildings, are fundamentally inhabited spaces. They are incomplete without human interaction. “I think with my hands,” states Maya Lin, noted architect, in her book Boundaries. The students developed structural imagery using only paper by thinking with their hands. The first portals were built of post and lintel construction. A curved arch is more difficult: the keystone is needed at the apex to lock the other pieces into position. Building a book is similarly difficult feat.
This book was built by ten women paper architects. Their tools were knives and bone folders, and four Vandercook printing presses. They blended three typefaces chosen for their affinity and distinctiveness: Garamond, Ehrhardt, and Fournier. Heather paper from China was selected for its natural stone-like colors of oatmeal, sage, charcoal, and mahogany. It was exactly the right stiffness for cut-aways and pop-ups. The tops of the rising sections were hand-cut to suggest a natural landscape where built structures fit into their environment, which changes as you manipulate the book into different configurations. You move from the outside to the inside, as if through openings. Edition of 109. Measures 4 x 15.75 inches with 64 pages. The double-sided accordion fold binding is housed in an acrylic slipcase.
Order a Book from Scripps College Press
If you would like to purchase a copy of the books or broadsides, please send a check, payable to the Scripps College Press, to the address below. Please add California sales tax of 8.75% if book is in stock, and a shipping fee of $12.00 per book.Become a Patron
If you wish to become a standing order patron, you will receive 20% off the list price of the books and will receive each book immediately after it is completed. We complete a collaborative book each semester. Please indicate with your order if you wish to become a subscriber.Scripps College Press 1030 Columbia Ave. #2025 Claremont, CA 91711 Attn: Tia BlassingameIf you would like more information, please call (909) 607-3866.
| Previous: Deluge | Next: Manu*Script |