ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾

The pop-up exhibition took place the afternoon of December 12, 2024, in the Special Collections Learning Lab at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and featured twenty-four artworks.

Twelve of those were the works of the students themselves, while the other half featured examples from the learning lab’s extensive contemporary book arts collection. Students visited this collection several times over the course of the semester and, guided by curator Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, each selected a number of artists’ books to pair with their own work.

Unlike a standard book, which is about conveying information, an “artist’s book” is intended to be a work of art itself that uses the form or function of a “book” as inspiration.

With an emphasis on design, visual storytelling, and studio technique, Scanga’s students explored the printed page as a medium for artistic expression, spending a lot of time in the printmaking studio of the Edwards Center. “The students covered a lot of ground,” said Scanga. “For example, they learned how to make accordion fold books using drypoint intaglio prints, pop-up flag books using relief and intaglio techniques, and silkscreen-printed stitched French fold books.”

Among the artists featured in the exhibition was the class co-teacher Rebecca Goodale, an internationally renowned artist who came to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ during the semester as part of the College’s Marvin Bileck Printmaking Project.

“In our classroom, Rebecca mentored students as they explored book structure and design while I guided them through printmaking techniques,” said Scanga. “Rebecca has been a mentor and friend to me since I came to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ in 2009, so sharing the classroom with her was a chance to invite students into that rich collaborative relationship too.” ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Special Collections & Archives has been collecting Goodale’s artwork for decades and owns hundreds of her books.

Here's a sample of some of the work that was on display:

Delphine King ’24 chose Maine Mussels in freshwater by Goodale as inspiration for her book, titled Sea to Table. “I discovered this book upon our second trip to Special Collections, during a class in which we were exploring silkscreen printed books,” said King. “Not only did I feel drawn to Rebecca’s book because of my relationship to her as my professor, but I also knew it tied into my theme I had chosen for the semester: the ocean.”

King said she was struck by the brightness of the colors in Goodale’s book and the opacity of each shade and element. “It felt full of life and movement, especially evoking the flow of water and currents that carried the mussels through their aquatic environment.”

In her work, which she produced using screen-printing techniques, King said she used multiple colors to give dimension to the animals and items surrounding them. It took a while to produce, she said, but was worth the work. “I wanted to walk the reader through the process that fish, oysters, and shrimp go through from the ocean to the table. To add a layer to the more calm and flowing ocean scenes, I included a QR code on the inside cover of my book that leads to an article by the Maine Stewardship Council about sustainable fishing practices.”

Also inspired by one of Goodale’s creations was Katie Rea ’25. Her piece, I have purse, was paired with Goodale’s flag book Credit Cards, which features a collection of random credit card offers received by the artist. Rea’s piece consists of random objects found in the bags of her friends and family. The purse itself was modeled after the bag belonging to her best friend’s mom.

“I asked her what the randomest things were in her bag,” she said. “It started off as a joke, but the more I worked on it, the more it took shape,” added Rea, whose book unfolds to reveal artistic impressions of items such as keys, sunglasses, and an ID badge. She made the items by drawing shapes of various objects on the tetrapak lining found in soup cartons and cutting them out.  

“I chose this class because it looked fun,” said the biochemistry and psychology double major, “and it’s been one my favorites.”

Ailee Jones ’28 is mulling a major in computer science but thought this print-making course looked too enjoyable to resist. Her work, Into the Light, was inspired by Barrett Brewer’s Birds of a Feather Will Gather Together: A Tropical Aviary. While Brewer’s book highlights the beauty of tropical birds, Jones focuses on a different winged creature.

“Into the light explores the beauty of the moth, which most people skim over not because of its obscurity, but rather because of its commonality,” she explains. “I really like not only the colors Brewer uses but how the movement of the flag book resembles the flight of the birds. I wanted to take that and apply it to a less widely adored creature because I feel like the moth is often placed in the shadow of the butterfly,” said Jones.

Her work is also a flag book, utilizing movement to represent the moth in flight. While most moths are various shades of brown and gray, however, Jones decided to make the moths in her book an assortment of vibrant colors, inspired by Brewer’s tropical birds. This is meant to represent the color moths could bring to our lives if we appreciated them more, she said.