Show Description:

Bookbinder and book artist, Mel Antuna Hewitt, is inviting the community to join her in exploring the creation and decoding of communication through artist books. "Communications" showcases new and old works that transcend and question traditional forms of communication and how we consume them by engaging viewers with books of enormous size and others that force the question “How is that a book?” Since their invention, books have been the long standing medium of choice for keeping and disseminating the world’s communications. Traditionally books house words and phrases formed by letters printed onto sheets of paper which are collected and bound between two covers. But humans have invented many different techniques, such as Morse code and semaphores, to be able to communicate with one another in order to express thoughts, opinions, and information. Some are visual, others felt, and others still were only meant to be heard. What happens when we use a different form of communication and combine it with something that is maybe on the outskirts of what we generally define as “book?” In "Communications," Mel challenges the concept of the book, pushing the boundaries of how we carry, share, and save those communications.

Artist Statement:

I am a book artist. I believe that the book object itself is a work of art as much as the content within. It is my goal to reengage individuals with the magic of books. In my books I attempt to force a new view on what a book is, specifically by changing how the viewer interacts with it. It becomes an experience; one that I hope furthers the definition of "book." I accomplish this by bending the traditional view of books and creating one-of-a-kind-experiences. I play with this idea by creating structures that enable the book to be viewed and interacted with as a piece of art, such as being hung on a wall or displayed on a pedestal, but still also function as a book does, with pages that can be turned or collapsed down and put on a bookshelf. My work ranges from printmaking to sculptural artist books to finely bound leather tomes. It is my mission to explore the narrative of the book: as an art piece and as a means of holding and conveying knowledge.