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Reader's Delight
June 24 - August 6, 2010



Summer is traditionally associated with reading for enjoyment, as a time to indulge in the guilty pleasures of best-sellers and how-to guides, as well as an opportunity to tackle lengthy literary tomes. The advent of digitized books and e-readers promises to transform reading by threatening the tangible qualities of the book with obsolescence. The familiar physical properties of books that reassure many readers are increasingly seen as hopelessly old-fashioned: shape, weight, cover design, typography, illustration, layout, smell, as well as the infinite vastness or tender intimacy of libraries and bookshelves. Reader's Delight explores some of the myriad ways artists express their reverence and affection for books and the act of reading. Several of the artists use actual books as an object to be altered, transfigured, and re-read, exemplified in very different forms in Matthew Higgs' conceptual transformations of framed and isolated abstract book cover designs, Mamiko Otsubo's enigmatic masks collaged from the pages and covers of art history books, Donna Ruff's Rorschach-like patterns burned on the pages of Freud, Tom Burckhardt's re-purposed book covers used as grounds for his fanciful paintings, and Yohei Nishimura's kiln-fired de-accessioned books, shrunken and shriveled into fragile and lightweight wasp's nests of bound leaves and cover. In other works, artists isolate and transform aspects of book design and its systems of classification, as in Mary Ellen Bartley's Morandi-like anonymous stacks of paperback volumes, Erica Baum's poetic transformations of digitized indices and page edges, and Mickey Smith's monumentalized isolation of luxuriant leather book spines. Other artists create real or imaginary author portraits, as in Maira Kalman's affectionate images of famous books and writers and Martin McMurray's full-scale faux books replete with enigmatic titles and quirky and humorous author portraits. Richard Baker celebrates book design and typography in his gouache images of paperback books, Abelardo Morell conflates a crammed domestic bookshelf with a Tuscan landscape in his camera obscura image, and Jean Lowe creates ersatz books and images of libraries as vehicles for social critique and humor. What unites these artists is their veneration of the book as both a physical form and as a conceptual font of wisdom and insight.
 
  Richard Baker, The Job
Richard Baker
The Job, 2005
Gouache on paper
12 x 10 inches
Richard Baker, Parables and Paradoxes
Richard Baker
Parables and Paradoxes, 2005
Gouache on paper
12 x 10 inches
Parables and Paradoxes, A Nest of Ninnies
Richard Baker
A Nest of Ninnies, 2009
Gouache on paper
12 x 10 inches
  Mary Ellen Bartley, Untitled #22
Mary Ellen Bartley
Untitled #22, 2009
Archival pigment print
Edition 4/7
12 x 18 inches
Mary Ellen Bartley, Untitled #23
Mary Ellen Bartley
Untitled #23, 2009
Archival pigment print
Edition 2/7
12 x 18 inches
Erica Baum, Face
Erica Baum
Face, 2009
Pigment print
Edition 1/6
16 1/2 x 16 inches
  Erica Baum, Untitled (Rather Than Reasons Why)
Erica Baum
Untitled (Rather Than Reasons Why), 1999
Digital c-print
Edition 1/5
24 x 16 inches
Tom Burckhardt, English Literature
Tom Burckhardt
English Literature, 2008
colored pencil and acrylic on book cover
12 3/8 x 19 1/4 inches
Tom Burckhardt, Queer Judson
Tom Burckhardt
Queer Judson, 2008
colored pencil and acrylic on book cover
7 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches
  Matthew Higgs, May 1963
Matthew Higgs
May 1963, 2006
Framed book cover
19 x 17 3/4 inches
Matthew Higgs, The Art of Real USA 1948-1968
Matthew Higgs
The Art of Real USA 1948-1968, 2006
Framed book cover
18 x 18 inches
Maira Kalman, Freud
Maira Kalman
Freud, 2007
Gouache on paper
9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches
  Maira Kalman, Proust Notebook
Maira Kalman
Proust Notebook, 2006
Gouache on paper
8 x 6 3/4 inches
Maira Kalman, Rotundiloba
Maira Kalman
Rotundiloba, 2009
Gouache on paper
11 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches
Maira Kalman, Turgenev
Maira Kalman
Turgenev, 2006
Gouache on paper
9 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches
  Jean Lowe, Yes, Yes, Yes!
Jean Lowe
Yes, Yes, Yes!, 2010
Enamel on wood
24 x 24 inches
Jean Lowe, Marble Top Little Bookcase
Jean Lowe
Marble Top Little Bookcase, 2003
Enamel on papier-mâché
37 1/2 x 32 x 13 1/2 inches
Jean Lowe, Kindle: The Missing Manual
Jean Lowe
Kindle: The Missing Manual, 2009
Enamel on papier-mâché
15 1/2 x 11 x 3 1/2 inches
  Jean Lowe, The Secret
Jean Lowe
The Secret, 2010
Enamel on papier-mâché
10 x 14 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches
Jean Lowe, Candida Hofer - Libraries - Essay by Umberto Eco JLO10334
Jean Lowe
Candida Hofer - Libraries - Essay by Umberto Eco, 2006
Enamel on papier-mâché
14 3/8 x 13 3/8 x 3 inches
Jean Lowe, Rationing Compassion JLO10380
Jean Lowe
Rationing Compassion, 2009
Enamel on papier-mâché
11 x 13 x 2 3/8 inches
  Jean Lowe, Joy of Pickling - 200 Scenarios
Jean Lowe
Joy of Pickling - 200 Scenarios, 2009
Enamel on papier-mâché
10 x 8 x 2 1/8 inches
Martin McMurray, Know Your Lines and Act Your Part
Martin McMurray
Know Your Lines and Act Your Part, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 1/2 x 5 3/4 x 1 5/8 inches
Front
Martin McMurray, Know Your Lines and Act Your Part, view 2
Martin McMurray
Know Your Lines and Act Your Part, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 1/2 x 5 3/4 x 1 5/8 inches
Back
  Martin McMurray, Razing the Burden of Self
Martin McMurray
Razing the Burden of Self, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 3/8 x 5 3/8 x 1 7/8 inches
Front
Martin McMurray, Razing the Burden of Self, view 2
Martin McMurray
Razing the Burden of Self, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 3/8 x 5 3/8 x 1 7/8 inches
Back
Martin McMurray, Strife, Calamity, and Other Good Fortune
Martin McMurray
Strife, Calamity, and Other Good Fortune, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches
Front
  Martin McMurray, Strife, Calamity, and Other Good Fortune, view 2 RDR10034
Martin McMurray
Strife, Calamity, and Other Good Fortune, 2007
Acrylic on wood
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches
Back
Abelardo Morell, Camera Obscura: View of Landscape Outside of Florence in Room with Bookcase RDR10010
Abelardo Morell
Camera Obscura: View of Landscape Outside of Florence in Room with Bookcase, Italy, 2009
Pigment ink print
Edition 2/8
30 x 40 inches
Yohei Nishimura, Solid State Physics RDR10014
Yohei Nishimura
Solid State Physics, 2009
Fired book
7 1/2 x 5 x 3 inches
  Yohei Nishimura, Social Aspects of Industry
Yohei Nishimura
Social Aspects of Industry, 2009
Fired book
9 x 5 1/2 x 3 inches
Yohei Nishimura, Solid State Physics RDR10016
Yohei Nishimura
Solid State Physics, 2009
Fired book
7 x 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches
Mamiko Otsubo, p.120 (navy)
Mamiko Otsubo
p.120 (navy), 2010
Cut book pages with acrylic on linen book cover
11 x 9 inches
  Mamiko Otsubo, p. 115 (cream, navy, brown)
Mamiko Otsubo
p. 115 (cream, navy, brown), 2010
Cut book pages with acrylic on linen book cover
11 x 9 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 1
Donna Ruff
Dreams 1, 2006
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 6
Donna Ruff
Dreams 6, 2006
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
  Donna Ruff, Dreams 7
Donna Ruff
Dreams 7, 2007
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 14
Donna Ruff
Dreams 14, 2007
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 15
Donna Ruff
Dreams 15, 2007
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
  Donna Ruff, Dreams 16
Donna Ruff
Dreams 16, 2008
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 19
Donna Ruff
Dreams 19, 2008
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Donna Ruff, Dreams 21
Donna Ruff
Dreams 21, 2008
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
  Donna Ruff, Dreams 22
Donna Ruff
Dreams 22, 2008
Burnt book paper
8 1/2 x 11 inches
Mickey Smith, The Leisure Hour
Mickey Smith
The Leisure Hour, 2007
Archival inkjet print on Hahnemuhle Matte Photo Rag
Edition 3/10
30 x 46 inches
  Readers Delight, installation 1
Installation view
Readers Delight, installation 2
Installation view
Readers Delight, installation 3
Installation view
  Readers Delight, installation 4
Installation view
Readers Delight, installation 5
Installation view
Readers Delight, installation 6
Installation view
  Readers Delight, installation 7
Installation view
Readers Delight, installation 8
Installation view
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