I usually am not moved to blog about something that is time constrained, but I cannot help myself in this instance.
Yesterday I finally took the time to visit Coburn Gallery (in our student center) to look at an exhibit entitled “Book as Object,” which has been there for over a month. I was out of town when the exhibit opened, partially explaining my tardiness. What a mistake on my part.
This is a remarkable show, subtitled “An International Survey of Sculptural Bookworks.” Artists from West Virginia to Italy, from Alaska to Arizona, and especially from Denver (home of Alicia Bailey, who put the exhibit together) work in a remarkable variety of media and give mind-blowing new dimensions to the concept of “book.”
I wish I had photographs — but I promise you they would not begin to do justice to the varied and stunning works on display. Laminated hand-carved pages from art criticism books; painted/fired glass; Plexiglas, soil and barley grass; linen, silkscreen, letterpress printing, paper and board; pegboard, metal, hog gut, paper, cord, wood cardboard, sandpaper, wax, photo, acrylic, rubber stamps— these are the ingredients, stirred and shaped by vivid imaginations—that provide a visual feast.
Unfortunately this delightful show will wrap up on Saturday evening (December 16th at 7:30 pm). But for the next forty-eight hours you still can savor this very special exhibit—to have your mind stretched, to see sequence and word and story in spectacularly fresh ways, and to understand one of the profound lessons of the liberal arts: imagine beyond the boundaries, across the textures of discipline or skill set.
For the next two days you can see such imagination in action at the Coburn Gallery. Run, don’t walk, to see “Book as Object.”
Coburn Gallery is open from 12:30 pm - 7:30 pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
