The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) featurestwo smaller exhibits that develop these ideas as part of its larger theme of“Beyond Words.” The exhibit “Speaking Volumes: The Language of Artists’ Books”(through May 23) displays various handmade books, either one-of-a kind printsor very limited editions, from more than 20 international artists.
The books incorporate vintage techniques such ascalligraphy, hand binding, letterpress, papermaking, stitching and sculpting,among others. The JMKAC complements the exhibit with a video that explains theunusual but intimate medium of art books.
In a fascinating piece titled Hanging Index (2010), artist Scott McCarney dissects a referencebook. A large black-and-white hardcover frame hangs from the ceiling with thebook’s contentsthin strips of pagestumbling to the floor, resembling a 6-footpaper tassel. This piece may exemplify that encyclopedias and other referencebooks are merely for ornamentation in today’s world, having become obsolete inthe glow radiating from the dominant PC.
An ominous impression emerges from Toby Lee Greenberg’sgold foil book The Menu (1995). Theimprinted words on these expensive, ivory pages recall an intensely personaldinner. The one on view consists of Steak & Eggs, Toast with Jelly, Milk& Coffee (offered but declined). This meal records the last repast ofTheodore Bundy, on Jan. 24, 1989, 7:16 a.m., in Starke, Fla. All of Greenberg’s menus speak to the lastmeals of executed prisoners, upending the romantic notion of fine dining.
Every book in this exhibition offers similarlyprovocative ideas and incomparable expertise.
In another room, the JMKAC installs an exhibitiontitled “Heather Willems: Writing the Making” (through May 2). This exhibitevokes Claes Oldenburg, whose oversized everyday items made the ordinary largerthan life. Willems, a New Yorkartist, hangs two 40-by-9-foot scrolls from corners of the ceiling and recordsa stream of consciousness.
Hand-scribbled in graphite are details of dailylife, including grocery lists and telephone numbers, as the scrolls shed lighton the time these trivial notes and minutiae occupy in a person’s life.
When studied from a distance, however, the twodiagonal sheets merge into gently sloping hills marked with land patchescreated by script, as one might see from an aerial perspective.
At a Milwaukeegallery appropriately named The Tenth Street Theatre Gallery, housed in theTenth Street Theatre’s spacious lobby, photographer William Zuback seeks analternative expression to previously written texts. His recently openedexhibition “Book Passages” (through April 9) features black-and-whitephotographs accompanied by written words.
The subject material plays with the ironic,satirical and surreal while adding his visual interpretation to the printedwords. In Zuback’s image Glam Slam animmaculately attired young woman holds a Rubik’s Cube designed with nude femalebody parts. Underneath the photograph are excerpts taken from Kit Reed’s book Thinner Than Thou: “Perfect hair, youneed. Perfect abs and pecs. Image is everything.”
Zuback’s collection expertly connects photographyand literature. Overall, each of these exhibitions imaginatively reinterpretsmodern conversations and the use of language in superb, unconventional artworksthat should initiate further creative dialogue.
