Going to the McMullen museum was a great trip on a lovely spring day. BC's campus is so beautiful. I very much liked the whole exhibition as all the books there are very impressive and we are able to see another side of what is called "high art" besides the "usual" paintings or sculptures...as a matter of fact some books actually make use of these two medium to create such rich content. However, there are three artist's books that really impressed me.
1. "On the Line" by Linda Johnson and Kristy Lewis Andrew
Consists of twelve rumors silkscreened on cotton muslin panels, twelve miniature clothespins, and a clothesline. The viewers connect with the piece in the way that it's symbolically about hanging out the dirty laundry.
I thought the piece was fantastic and yet so simple. It's fun to look at and put a smile on my face after reading some crazy gossip about famous artists having weird fixations with their art work. For example, one rumor on the piece is about how painter Jackson Pollock would drink vodka and then piss on his canvas underneath his feet. That is how he came up with his signature artwork/ motif. I have heard this from an art teacher some years ago, and I never thought it could potentially be true.
2. "Dinner with Mr. Dewey " by M.L. Van Nice
This book installation was VERY impressive, not only because of its originality, but because of all de details and the fact that you could actually walk up to the table, go around it, and instantly recognize all the "food" that was being presented through books. The piece is a take on the seventeenth-century essayist Francis Bacon, who said "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." I think Bacon's intellect has been presented brilliantly and in a very exquisite (no pun intended) way by the artist Van Nice. Afterall it is true that " order is in the eye of the orderer."
3. "B-11226: Fifty Years of Silence" by Tatana Kellner.
This piece transmits a strong message to anyone who gets near its glass container at the museum, especially the hole the arm has left literally cutting through
the family pictures. Just by looking at the arm and the number on it, the viewer knows what the story behind it is about. There isn't even a need to read the artist's statement to feel connected to the pain and suffering that this book provokes. I am jewish and I have met Holocaust survivors, and so it's very interesting how I was able to relate to this particular book more so than with any other in the exhibition; as I felt it tells part of my ancestor's life and therefore, where I come from.
I think that it would had been great to have a HUGE log book at the entrance of the museum, so each visitor would be part of the exhibition by leaving their name on a book presented as art as well.
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