Books in a museum!

I was very excited to see one of Kara Walkers pieces. I am a huge fan of hers and enjoy her sense of humor while taking on serious issues such as institutionalized racism and the systematic rape of a race of women. Her pop-up book was beautiful, as were most of the pop-ups which impressed me the most. I went into the exhibit with pre-conceived notions about what a book is and its distinction from sculpture. My views did not change, although I did enjoy the show. I liked the playing on of book conventions (not so much the changing of the defining features of a book) so, for example, one of my favorites was Genie Shenk's "Dreaming" which played with the idea that the thickness of a book should always be less than its height (this piece was a long rectangle). Kellner's "My 9 Migraine Cures" was nice with its added interactivity. A book traditional book, Watson's "Who to Attract Birds?", with pages the shape of wings was aesthetically really well done. The most experimental piece I enjoyed was Sharoff's "The Great Wall"--a piece of paper standing up, wrapped around itself, challenging our Western-centric views on what art/ books should be.