Soft Touch: Textiles and Tactility in Bookmaking exhibit

This exhibit, visible when the 2nd floor of Alden Library is open, challenges us to rethink how we understand "the book" to be a block of printed pages bound into a hard cover. Variations in the material used to bind books, ranging from silk and linen to hand embroidery, have softened and personalized the experience of a book in hand throughout history. Looking to contemporary artists' books, including some created by Ohio University students, we find that they can be made of almost any textile-based, inspired, or adjacent material, and that they may not function as we expect a book to function. Perhaps there is no beginning or end, no front or back cover, or no obvious opening at all! When it comes to books like these, the materiality may invite us in as much as, or more than, the content. This exhibit was curated to compliment the Sept. 23rd event, Coded Threads: Translating Shakespeare Into Material Form, a talk by book artist, printmaker, and writer Suzanne Coley. For more information contact Miriam Intrator intrator@ohio.edu.