Artist Member
Truth Will Out
Base: 14.5 x 3.25″ Height: 3.5″
This book grew from my work with women incarcerated in the Dutchess County Jail. I wanted to portray their persistent desire to be heard. I printed the authors’ words on leaf-like paper and attached them to a spine that resembles razor wire. The leaves are loosely wired together in the ways that bonds created through oppression are, so often fragile and easily severed.
Seventeen Syllables
4.75 h x 3.5 w x 4.25″ d
From time to time the men in my writing groups wrote haikus. It is a clarifying form, often with surprising results. In its transparency, this book reflects that clarity. Seen together from front to back, the pages create the illusion of columns. It is designed so that each page can be removed for meditation.
Mandala
Base: 6.25 x 3.25″ Height: 6.25″ Circle: 5.25″ diameter
This book was formed from the artist’s postcards of a friend’s exhibit. It is designed so that the pages can be changed for meditation and contains Buddhist sayings for contemplation. I was fascinated with the engineering challenges of making a circular, suspended book. I also often work with the inspiration of other artists’ work.
Pam Wright
BIO
Unlike many book artists, I do not have a background in fine arts. In 1995, I fell in love with paper and book arts. I was fortunate to live close to Women’s Studio Workshop at a time when their Summer Institute included the finest book artists and teachers. Because I have always been something of an autodidact, I spent several years attending workshops taught by the artists whose work I most admired. I was also lucky to find a group of other book artists in my area, the lower Hudson Valley, who were nurtured by the brilliant Jo Renbeck, now deceased. Jo provided us with many opportunities to work together and individually. After her death, a small group of us continued to provide each other with inspiration and critique. As part of that process, we discovered that we could invite artists whose work interested us to come to our area and teach. In that context, we have learned from Hedi Kyle, Carolyn Shattuck, Nancy Callahan, Maria Pisano, Paula Beardell Krieg and others. We have also benefited from the friendship and guidance of Ed Hutchins.
Because I have a strong commitment to community art, I have taught book arts to adults and children throughout the Hudson Valley for the past fourteen years. I served as the coordinator artist of installations at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah, Rhinebeck and curated two exhibits of writing and visual art by currently and formerly incarcerated women and men. In 2017 I was the recipient of the Dutchess County Arts Council Volunteer of the Year award and of the Viewers’ Choice Award from the Hyde Park Artist’s Collective.
Recently I have stepped back from teaching to develop my skills and talents as a book artist. I spend most of my time now in the studio experimenting and expanding my vision of my work.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
As an artist, I am interested in exploring what is hidden and what is revealed. I often work with transparency (e.g. glass, clear plastic) but also create structures that open and close or are multi-layered. I choose to work with books because I believe we are always “reading” what we encounter and, consequently, I want to expand the concept of “book.” I am committed to encouraging community and to use my art to bring to hearing the voices of the silenced.
I often use materials that are re-cycled or are directly from nature. I incorporate other media in my books and am particularly fascinated by structures that demand a level of engineering. I am interested in using the conventional bookmaking forms in new ways. It is important to me to collaborate with other artists and feed off and even use reproductions of their work. I am ambivalent about text, what it is and what it can or cannot do, so I dance with text, create books that make noise, imply text or use it in a surprising way. I love the process of reversing what is soft and what is hard, and I often surprise the viewer with that exchange.
Each book is a new challenge and engineering task. I love using non-traditional materials. For example, pig gut will adhere to itself, can be printed on, becomes transparent, but can only be used well when there is something to which it can adhere. Materials like birch bark, mud based and bark paper, which are not meant to be permanent, create certain construction challenges but also add to the artistic impact. Something that is disintegrating as you work with it is a reminder of the transience of nature and our lives. Using non-traditional materials to transform conventional book forms creates problems that engage and excite me.