Resident Artist: The Painted Word: Jewish Women's Book Art

Abstract

The combination of visual imagery and printed or painted words constitutes a crossing of aesthetic borders that figures in much important artwork being done by contemporary Jewish women artists. Some of the work presented herein fits into the category known as booksnot a book about art, but that is a book. Book art is defined in the loosest sense of the word; it can take the form of a container for text, ideas, and/or images; of something that has a sequential narrative of words or pictures; orin the form most removed from its original functionof sculptural installations, often made from found and recycled materials, in which books or other printed matter are used as raw material for environmental structures and objects. The book movement has proliferated into a vibrant array of artworks that eschews the framed formality of wall art. It requires the viewer to engage interactively by reading, handling, or walking through the artist's creations. Some artist's books are unique, one-of-a-kind objects, but the abundance of modern photographic, copying, and printing technologies has created the means for an individual to publish her own multiple edition. The availability of very cheap or free publications has also expanded the possibilities available to the book artist by providing raw materialbut more about that later. The rich intellectual nature of these objects evokes the legacy of Walter Benjamin, the twentieth-century cultural analyst and literary critic who was a passionate collector of rare editions. It is said that his suicide, as he was detained at the Spanish/French border in 1940, was partially motivated by the despair that beset him as he envisioned life without his cherished library.