Artist’s Journal
Tea–stained Rives printmaking paper
Coptic stitch bookbinding
7 ½ x 6 ½“
As an educator, essayist, and book artist, Jeanette Eberhardy works at the intersection of writing and visual art. She teaches student artists how to tell the story that exists in their art at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Their experience reading the world through word and image combined is more intense than earlier generations due to their hyper attention on material presented on the internet. The field of book arts is particularly well-suited to explore the impact of word and image together.
Artist’s Journal
Collage Paper cover
6 x 4 ½“
Reflecting on writing and visual art, Eberhardy is inspired by a new anthology, Shapes of Native Nonfiction edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton who explore form in writing in ways that are familiar to artists. They describe the importance of the relationship between the structure of vessels and their content, such as the basket, the canoe, and the page: “To speak only of the contents of these vessels would be to ignore how their significance is shaped by the vessels that hold them.” The weave of the basket influences what it might hold. The shape of the canoe impacts the way it can be used for fishing on a river. And on the page, space creates the form, and “form is the work of imagination, bringing order, intent, and interpretation to the raw material of remembered experience.”
Artist’s Journals with quotes from Henri Michaux’s book Emergences/Resurgences
Handmade paper, three–station pamphlet stitch
3 x 2 ½”
Eberhardy uses the language of texture to facilitate this relationship between writing and visual art: the impression of letterpress print; tea–stained printmaking paper or rust–stained rice paper; the torn edges of pages. Texture helps us to imagine the layers of experience. And when we are able to move between the layers, we deepen our appreciation for life’s experiences.
The Welcome
Printed in the letterpress shop at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston
Tea-stained Rives printmaking paper, text set in Centaur 16 pt
Collage paper made from rice papers with gelatin leaf-pattern prints
Japanese side stitch bookbinding
4 ½ x 5 ½”
Quote by poet Wislawa Szymborska
Printed in the letterpress shop at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston
Rives medium weight printmaking paper
Text set in Stymie Light 24 pt
Poet’s name set in Bembo 18 pt
ABC’s book project in progress
Jeanette Eberhardy is most grateful for the opportunity to explore conversations with the NEBA community on the evolving relationships between word and image combined. New England Book Artists welcomes Jeanette and congratulates her on wonderful work.