New England Book Artists present the Wish You Were Here virtual exhibit featuring a collaboration between NEBA members and book artists from 6 additional book arts organizations from across the United States. This Mail Art project began with postcards and culminated in unique artist’s books. With art workshops, book binding techniques, Zoom meetings, and tons of emails, the summer of 2021 was busting with new connections and inspirations.
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Project Details
by Laurel Moorhead (SDBA) WYWH Project Administrator
Early in 2021, while we were still under pandemic restrictions, a group of San Diego Book Arts members met together via Zoom to discuss the idea of creating another collaborative project to bridge the social distancing limitations we were experiencing. We decided that we wanted to invite other book arts organizations to join us in a project of mail art, celebrating the place we call home. We reached out to six other organizations and got an enthusiastic response to our invitation to join us.
During another Zoom meeting between all of the organizations: San Diego Book Arts (SDBA), Bay Area Book Artists (BABA), North Redwoods Book Arts Guild (NORBAG), Puget Sound Book Artists (PSBA), PaperWorks, Santa Fe Book Arts Group (SFBAG) and New England Book Artists (NEBA), we worked out the details and chose the name: Wish You Were Here.
Each organization invited their members to join and 173 artists committed to creating and sending postcards to everyone in their 16-member group. A number of artists agreed to participate in two groups so we were able to fill 12 groups with 16 members, bringing a total of 191 batches of 16 postcards traveling through the mail.
Along with creating and mailing postcards, group members were encouraged to communicate via Zoom and email. This enhanced the community aspect of the project, with artists chatting back and forth, forging friendships, working out challenges, and bringing their worlds together.
Fortuitously, due to the success of the vaccine, the project reached completion, the world began to reopen, and we were once again free to travel and visit with friends, both old and new. This project has been joyous and successful beyond anything I could have dreamed of. I am so grateful to all of the participants and organizers who have made this possible.