Lin Max
Bed of Peonies
2014
Artist Book: letterpress and linocuts on vellum; stick binding; Cave paper cover
4-1/4 x 5-3/4 x 1-1/2 inches
Working with the book form has allowed me, a former librarian and inveterate bibliomaniac, to integrate a number of passions in a whole—painting, multi-media collage, writing, stitching and constructing. I’m attracted to repetition, reiteration, and multiples as a way to build visual narrative and semiotic meaning. My hope is always to allow some mystery, some questioning, to arise and linger.
What fascinates me most about making artist books, after many years of sewing, followed by many years of painting and multi-media collage, and now, learning letterpress printing, is how readily bookmaking envelops all these passions, all my “hand” skills, all my eclectic interests, while it simultaneously expresses my deep love of the natural world. Hand or machine stitching page after page and hand binding my books with a repetitive knotting sequence takes me to a dreamy landscape, a mysterious, intuitive place where I feel most my true self. Maybe we are always trying to return to what we most loved doing as a child. Maybe the landscape of our childhood, both inner and outer, is where we long to live out our lives.