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Karen Hanmer: "My sculptural books and installations fragment and layer content to mirror the experience of personal and cultural memory. The work often has a playful presentation, taking the form of puzzles, maps, games, or decks of cards. Many include text, often archival, usually first person accounts. The pieces are made to be handled. The intimate scale and the gestures of exploration required to travel through a piece evoke the experience of looking through an album, a diary, or the belongings of a loved one." SFCB Shelter in Studio: Karen Hanmer https://vimeo.com/492612104/10e5aaebf3 |
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Bookworks about what we are reading, listening to, hanging on our walls. |
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| To Serve and Protect: Containers, conveyances, and cosmic happenings | |
| By Karen Hanmer Glenview, Illinois: Karen Hanmer, 2014. Edition of 100. 7 x 5"; 32 pages. Sewn Boards binding, covered in full, custom psychedelic marbled paper by Pamela Smith with Bugra double folio endsheets. Presented in slipcase with marbled paper accent. Pigment inkjet prints on Mohawk Superfine. Signed and numbered by the artist. Karen Hanmer: "To Serve and Protect: Containers, conveyances, and cosmic happenings began as a response to the theme 'vessel.' Vehicles, containers for food, and other period receptacles provide a framework for the artist's musings on life in the 1960s and 1970s. Ostensibly about banal period items such as the wicker-wrapped chianti bottle, electric frying pan, and Chevy Nova, thirteen micro essays touch on Vietnam, fashion, the Cold War, cuisine, the economy, the women's liberation movement, and other issues reflecting Americans' perseverance, and our often misguided quest for peace and stability." Eric Alstrom, Head of Conservation & Preservation, Michigan State University Libraries: "Karen Hanmer has done it once again with To Serve and Protect. Combining just the right amount of humor, history, culture, social critique, and personal narrative, Hanmer tells us how over a dozen objects from the 1960s and 1970s shaped not only her life but that of an entire generation. Each item - the crock pot, microwave oven, Apollo Lunar Module, Chevy II and the mood ring - tells its own little story. Each story is full of cultural references, societal history as well a personal vignette. All of this and more, bound in a psychedelically elegant little volume that looks like it could have come from the time of which she speaks." $400 |
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Mirage 5.25 x 7"; 16 unnumbered pages. Sepia color prints. Case bound with paper-covered boards with cloth spine. Jeff Rathermel, Artistic Director at Minnesota Center for Book Art: "Karen Hanmer's Mirage beautifully represents the concepts of time and motion through a sequence of dreamlike images that whirl across the pages. The photographs, blurred as if taken from a speeding car, describe place and memory in a manner that is melancholic yet detached. The book is a diary of sorts, documenting the quickly passing and often unperceived moments that later prompt recollection." |
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Star Poems 6.75 x 5.75 x .75" closed, 17 x .5 x 23" open; 36 pages. Hinged triangular structure with star fields printed on deep blue. Pigment inkjet prints. Max Yela, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee: "Star Poems consists of astronomical quotes by historical and contemporary philosophers, scientists, artists, and poets paired with 17th century images of astronomers and constellations. The cover quote by Lord Byron, 'Ye stars / which are the poetry / of heaven,' is divided in three, with each part placed at the corners of the triangle, inviting the viewer to begin at any of the three corners. The effect is that one may travel in any direction through the vastness of heaven and encounter the profoundness of eternity, as if meaning were embedded in the environs of space itself, to be reflected and mediated through human synthesis." Quotations and images used: Cover quote, George Gordon, Lord Byron, 1788-1824; Milky Way photo courtesy of NASA-JPL; mythological constellation forms from Uranographicarum by Johannes Hevelius, 1687, courtesy of the US Naval Observatory; 1674 portrait of Ptolemy from University of Cambridge Starry Messenger website, other star gazer images from A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography by Joseph Moxon, 1674 and Seaman's Secrets by John Davis, 1657. |
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Letter Home 8 x 19 x 3" open. 8 x 5.6 " closed. Flag book with inkjet prints. A young Navy wife's letter written from Europe to her family on the farm. Max Yela, Head, Special Collections, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee: "The flag book, like other dynamic book structures, has the unfortunate potential to overwhelm content and artistic intent. Not so for Karen Hanmer’s flag book Letter Home. Here the book’s structure and its exterior and interior environments are fully integrated with content to embody and illuminate meaning. Using family photographs and dual, private voices – a letter to family and an interior commentary – Hanmer creates a visual narrative/diorama of Midwestern roots, geographic displacement, familial relationships, personal and interpersonal anxieties, and 1950s cultural transition. The work evokes emotions of longing and loss without being sentimental, as well as hope for the future that is flavored with Midwestern pragmatism. The revelatory quality of Hanmer’s flag book is quite appropriate to its content, creating a satisfying and multi-layered experience for the viewer." |
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The Spectrum A to Z 5 x 5 x 18". Pigment inkjet prints. Tunnel book with letters of the alphabet colored to run through the spectrum and back. Karen Hanmer: "Most years Chicago Hand Bookbinders members make alphabet books as a fund raising project to benefit a local book arts institution. 'The Spectrum A to Z' and 'Patriot Alphabet' were first created for this purpose, then improved and editioned. "The Spectrum A to Z "artists’ proof was a birthday present for my husband, who likes bright colors, from his wife, who prefers black." Books on Books Collection – Karen Hanmer |
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| The Changing World of Information Technology | |
Big Blue 3.25 x 7.5" Laser print on polyester film, computer punch card. Another in Hanmer's series of works on computer history in the United States. This work has a National Archives image of 1970s era computer room overlaid on an IBM punch card. |
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I Remember My First 8.75 x 7.5" Inkjet prints on green bar computer paper. Side-sewn with green thread, utilizing pre-punched holes. Issued in a phase wrapper made of heavy, green map folder stock, fastened with velcro and stamped with author's name and address. Entering the world of Information Technology using quotes from interviews with software engineers exploring how they became interested in working with computers and what they still find compelling about software, hardware and |
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Beaut.E(Code) 3.25 x 7.25" Text keypunched onto computer cards, "bound" with custom printed rubber band. The wonderful world of computer technology is documented through interviews conducted with computer software developers exploring the aesthetic values in, and their fond feelings for computer programming.
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| The Midwest | |
Big River 10.75 x 8.75 x 1.25" construction. Materials: pigment inkjet prints, binders' board, plexiglass, ball bearings. Karen Hanmer: "Like the child’s pocket game, the viewer maneuvers the box to get each of the balls into a divot corresponding to a city mentioned in the Johnny Cash song, Big River, where the lovesick narrator chases his woman down the Mississippi River, missing her at every port."
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Flip Farm 2 x 3.5 x.5" flipbook with pigment inkjet prints. The Flip book simulates the experience of driving past a field of corn.
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| Personal History Works | |
Decoration 5 x 10.5" closed; fully extended 9' when removed from dust jacket. Accordion book. Pigment inkjet prints.Vintage photographs represent the accomplishments and values of a mid century husband and wife. Karen Hanmer: "Even before my father died it bothered me that my mother’s obituary said almost nothing – only that she went to high school and left Minnesota, then died leaving two children. I wanted to make a tribute to what she did and who she was for 46 years. When my father died, his obituary was long and detailed with his accomplishments and involvement in the community. Decoration includes images of my father’s actual medals and certificates of accomplishment, plus images representing what was important to my mother – things she would have gotten medals and certificates for had such honors existed." |
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Reunion 7 X 7.5". Sewn boards binding. Pigment inkjet prints, silk brocade, goatskin. Vintage photographs and brief text document a couple’s many separations and ultimate reunion. Karen Hanmer: "When my father died I became very intrigued with and comforted by the idea that after a 34 year separation, he and my mother were now reunited. As I looked at family photographs, spoke to their old Navy friends, and made a timetable of their life together, I found that they were often separated even during their 19 years together. Reunion explores their many separations, reunions, and final union." |
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Bequest 8 x 19 x 3 " open; 8 x 4 5/8 x.75 closed. A flag book with pigment inkjet prints.Text outlines the brief history of an immigrant farming family and lists the first names of three generations. Included in the exhibit The Art of the Book ’03 organized by The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG) that traveled across Canada 2003-2005. |
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Ann Black 6.5 x 20 x 3" open. Archival inkjet print. Text tells the story of a 1930’s small town school teacher and her philandering boyfriend. Hanmer created this book from a letter her husband's aunt wrote her when Karen asked about the woman in an old photo. |
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Crystals 7 x 14 x 7" Carousel structure with archival inkjet prints. Tells the story of the sensuous pleasures of a the straight-laced child’s twilight summer walk to the candy store to purchase caramel “bull’s eyes,” in the company of the free-wheeling children from the family next door.
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| The United States and Political History | |
#Great Again #Believe Me 3.5 x 2.5 x .75" closed, 21.5 x 2.5 x .125 extended; 6 double-sided panels. Jacob’s Ladder structure. Materials: pigment inkjet prints, binders’ board, polypropylene. Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress. Housed in clamshell of archival board. Numbered. Karen Hanmer: "From Access Hollywood through the Mueller investigation to white nationalist support, #Great Again #Believe Me documents contemporary American personalities, pronouncements, slogans, scandals, policies and crimes, complemented by the metaphor of a deconstructing US Capitol." Robert Gore, UCLA Arts Library: "#Great Again #Believe Me shows Karen Hanmer once again being a 'first responder' to current events. Students in my introductory book arts class were interested in how the structure of the book could change at a moment’s notice, reflecting the transitory nature of our #hashtag world. A book to spark discussion and debate!" |
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1984NOW Boxed set of five 2 x 5.5 x 1.25” flip books. Laser and inkjet prints on acid-free cardstock, buckram-wrapped spine. Books presented in individual mylar sleeves. Housed in archival corrugated box. Karen Hanmer: "Set of five flip books inspired by the intersection of George Orwell’s 1984 and current events. Phrases from Orwell’s text morph into phrases from the headlines and back again. "Great Again suggests how 1984’s four governmental departments are manifested in 2017 America: Ministry of Truth / Lies, Ministry of Peace / America First, Ministry of Love / Law & Order, Ministry of Plenty / Defund & Privatize "Platform lists three slogans as familiar today as in Orwell’s dystopian society: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. "Temperament documents many of the most common (and unconsciously self-referential) presidential words and phrases: Huge, Tremendous, Loser, Out of Control, Bad Hombre, Dangerous, Disaster, Believe Me "Topia is a reminder that one citizen’s Utopia is another’s dystopia, and how easily one can become the other. "Watching explores the seductive quality even the most dangerous leader can possess." |
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Nevermore Again: Poe Exhumed Standard: Presented in a paper wrapper. Construction based on the first edition of Tamerlane. Deluxe: Presented in an early 19th-century-style publisher’s binding with marbled paper by Pamela Smith. Endpapers incorporate the design of the wrapper for the Standard Edition. Karen Hanmer, prospectus:
William K. Finley, Head Special Collections & University Archives, Jackson Library, University of North Carolina at Greensboro: "Although few people today are likely to confuse Edgar Allan Poe with Nostradamus or to view his stories and poems as predictions of the future, book artist Karen Hanmer has cleverly and forcefully shown Poe’s relevance to today’s world in Nevermore, Again: Poe Exhumed. |
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The Model Architect: The Panic of '09 14 x 11 x .5"; 48 unnumbered pages. Pigment inkjet prints, calf spine, leather label, title and tooling in gold foil, red acrylic ink edges. Marbled paper by Iris Nevins. Two texts, one promoting self-glorification by way of home architecture and the other outlining the blueprint of contemporary foreclosure, are combined into one cautionary tale. Karen Hanmer: "The Model Architect: The Panic Of '09 is based on The Model Architect, Samuel Sloan's 1852 collection of house plans and instructions to contractors. The new work pairs historical text and illustrations from Sloan's work with contemporary text from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's online Guide to Avoiding Foreclosure. "The book is bound using the drum leaf structure, but is evocative of a mid 19th century binding in its use of materials and decorative elements: Karen Hanmer, Colophon: "Samuel Sloan's The Model Architect was published at the mid point of a century marked by cycles of rampant speculation followed by financial collapse. The Panic of 1857 came on the heels of publication of Sloan's work, and put a halt to the most active portion of his career. "This milieu mirrors what has happened in my own neighborhood of modest homes over the past fifteen years. The transformation began with some owners remodeling their kitchen, or adding a family room or bedroom. Then larger additions came. Ultimately, the houses commanded high prices to be sold as teardowns. Huge new houses were built in their places. "The construction proceeded with increasingly grandiose features; portions of the facade faced with thin sheets of stone, wooden garage doors with cast iron-like fittings, decorative copper accents on the roofs, turrets, lions flanking the brick driveways. "Now the house across the street, the house next door, and the house next door to that are all in foreclosure, and soon will be uninhabitable. The lawns grow without interruption. Without electricity and heat the basements fill with water, the pipes burst, the mechanicals are destroyed. Few modest, affordable homes remain in the neighborhood." |
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Franklin Fatigue 5 x 6.5"; 18 pages. Accordion structure folding from back pastedown. Cover and title illustration by Henry Maron. Other illustrations from the Library of Congress archives. Originally created for a friend "fleeing from" the city of brotherly love and its Franklin-mania. In this tongue-in-cheek book the beloved and prolific Franklin is hoisted by his own petard. His words, his words, and more of his words smack of self-satisfied priggishness. And his deeds exhibit more than a soupcon of hypocrisy. Eric Alstrom, Collections Conservator, Michigan State University Libraries: "A book should be both a joy to read and a joy to hold. Karen Hanmer's latest book, Franklin's Fatigue, fits both bills. Hanmer's wit and wisdom are once again present, channeled through the writings of Ben Franklin. Through the clever use of Mr. Franklin's quotes and quips, Hanmer reflects not only on our most loquacious of Founding Fathers, but on the current situation... in all it's glory and messiness. But the messiness is only in the current situation, because Hanmer's careful craftsmanship is evident throughout Franklin's Fatigue. The book feels right in the hand. The pages turn easily. And as with any page turner, you'll want to keep turning them to read all those wonderful things about good old Ben. There are enough quotes and facts to surprise anyone but the most devoted of Franklin scholars." |
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House of Cards 20.5 x 3.5 x .25" extended; 2.5 x 3.5 x 1.25 closed. Jacob’s Ladder: Pigment inkjet prints, binders’ board, polypropylene. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron. Exactly what we’ve come to expect of Karen Hanmer’s work: structure and content in lockstep, meticulous craft, pointed and unsubtle satire eliciting immediate visceral response. Again she reminds us that emotional impact doesn’t depend on complexity. The only incongruity is emotional: the books reference nursery rhymes, toys, and the innocence of children; the minimal text of House of Cards – from Abu Ghraib to Paul Wolfowitz – elicits from at least one reader tears of loss and frustration. Karen Hanmer: "An image of the White House deconstructs as text on reverse documents blunders and evil-doings since the 2001 inauguration." |
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| America's Most Wanted: Black Gold Texas Tea By Karen Hanmer Glenview, Illinois: Karen Hanmer, 2003. Open Edition. 3.5 x 2.5 x .5". Designed as a deck of cards in card case with 52 playing cards. Inspired by decks of playing cards portraying villains and heroes from Operation Iraqi Freedom. This deck pictures 52 different Sports Utility Vehicles. |
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| The World of Flight |
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Faster Higher Further First: a sampler of women aviators 8 x 56 x 5” open; 8 x 2.5 x .5” closed. Pigment inkjet prints. An accordion format pop-up book with vintage photographs of 14 women aviators from the beginnings of powered flight until the present. Brief text lists the accomplishments of each woman. |
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They All Laughed 7 x 5 x .75" closed; 7 x 5 x26" open. Flag book with archival pigment inkjet prints. Created for the Guild of Book Workers traveling exhibition In Flight (2003-2005). Photographs and archival documents pertaining to the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight, contrasted with the Gershwin song, They All Laughed, that lists a number of screwball ideas for inventions that became the foundation of modern society. |
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Secrets of Flight 7 x 26 x 5" open; 7 x 5 x .75" closed. Archival inkjet prints. Photographs and archival documents pertaining to the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight. |
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| Hanmer explores our cultural activities - art, music, books. | |
Horizons... Capri 5.5 x 8 x .5"; 16 pages. Pigment inkjet prints. Gold-stamped vellum spine. Drum leaf binding. Cover wrappers vary. Laid in four flap phase box with velcro closure. Prospectus: "The painting that hung over the bookmaker's childhood sofa; photographed, digitally printed actual size, deconstructed, and bound using the drum leaf structure. When this view of the island of Capri overlooking the Gulf of Naples is divided into eight equal portions, each portion still reads as a horizon. A fragmented walk through the landscape may also function as metaphor for memory, and the unanswered questions that elude memory." Vera Sekic, Chicago painter and curator: "With her latest project, Karen |
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Random Passions 4 x 7"; 32 pages. Laser prints on translucent paper. Pamphlet in case binding. Covered with red velvet finish book cloth. Hot stamped title. Karen Hanmer: "Couples from romance novel covers traced onto translucent paper layer together, and multiple new combinations emerge." Barbara Tetenbaum, Triangular Press: "Karen Hanmer exploits both materials (transparent paper) and format (the codex) to create her orgy of embracing figures, all traced from the covers of romance novels. It thrills me to think of the hot action these couples get being so closely bound between the book's red covers!" Artist’s Books Unshelved, In Search of $125
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All Shook Up 8 x 19 x 3" fully open. Pigment inkjet prints in flag book construction. Black velvet finish paper cover. A tribute to the King of Rock 'n Roll, Elvis Presley. Elvis' famous smile printed across one set of 'pages' with his birthplace in Tupelo and a list of his best known songs on reverse flags. |
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Deal Me In, Mona 8 x 19 x 3" fully open. Pigment inkjet prints in flag book construction. Contrasts two more or less iconic paintings of Western Art: DaVinci's Mona Lisa and Coolidge's Waterloo (a Poker Dogs painting). High brow meets low brow. |
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| Karen Hanmer is interested in how books are made, how they are bound, and teaching others these techniques. | |
Contemporary Paper Bindings 7 x 10.25 x 4" sectioned clamshell box. Contains 10 binding models, 6.25 x 4.25 x .5" each, and 8.25 x 6.5" manual of 140 pages. Signed and numbered by the artist. Karen Hanmer: "Ten paper bindings in a clamshell box, mostly non-adhesive, mostly unsupported sewing: three folded paper cases, supported and unsupported laced cases, long stitch, chain stitch with decorative guards, double-pamphlet in tipped wrapper, multi-section pamphlet, German stiffened paper binding with double-fan adhesive text block. "The set also includes a 140 page hand-bound b&w laser-printed manual: a skill-building guide to bookbinding techniques, tools, and materials with a glossary and an extensive bibliography (many of the resources available online). Chapters on tools and supplies, ergonomics, signature preparation, endsheets, sewing and working with case-weight papers precede complete instructions for crafting ten different paper binding structures. Each process is illustrated with numerous b&w photographs and diagrams. The instructions for each structure are also provided as PDFs on digital media for classroom distribution. "For centuries paper has served as a quick, elegant, and economical covering material for books. These models and accompanying instructions will introduce beginners to the basic tools, techniques and materials of bookbinding. Experienced practitioners will discover how features from multiple bindings can be combined to create a new, custom structure to meet the requirements of any project. All of these structures can be made in a sparsely-equipped studio with minimal specialized tools or equipment. "Please note these sets are made to order and may not be available for immediate delivery. Average turn-around time is nine to twelve months." |
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| Biblio Tech: Reverse engineering historical and modern binding structures | |
By Karen Hanmer
"Please note these sets are made to order and may not be available for immediate delivery. Presently turn-around time is 9-12 months." |
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Elephants Battle Aggressive Vegetation in Ancient Egypt 7.5 x 4.75 x 1.75" box containing plaquettes and pamphlet. Seven 7.5 x 4.75" plaquettes: binders' board covered with inkjet-printed cotton backed with Japanese tissue. Pamphlet: 7.5 x 4.5"; 4 pages; text includes colophon, artist's statement, images of five books from The Athenaeum's collection and image credits; inkjet printed on Arches text paper. Clamshell box: bookcloth over binders' board, inkjet-printed label. Hanmer created new cover designs by combining elements from each of the five late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century publishers' bindings The Athenaeum made available online to artists in the fall of 2011. Karen Hanmer: "Part decorative arts and part cabinet of curiosities, the |
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| Karen Hanmer Out of Print Titles: | |
Celestial Navigation 6.75 x 5.75 x .5" closed, 17 x .5 x 23" open; 32 pages. Hinged triangular structure with star fields printed on deep blue. Pigment inkjet prints. Max Yela, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee: "The narrative evokes a deep sense of loss and longing; reaching to the stars as a way of recapturing the memory of the long-departed: 'Like ancient navigators, I look to the sky to find my way back to you.' . The diamond-shaped page-spread offers text printed against a star field on the left, mirrored by a 19th-century star chart on the right. The one-point rhythm of each page spread progresses steadily, and is resolved by a final spread of uniform space in which one can almost discern the presence of the beloved. The book has three possible spaceways: the textual narrative occupying one path, and the other two taken up with lists of astronomical instruments - particularly instruments of navigation - juxtaposed against 17th-century images of astrolabes, sextants, telescopes, and the like." |
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Flag Book Model Set Each book 8 x 20 x 3” extended; 5 x 8 x .5" closed. Pigment inkjet prints. Vintage FSA photo of woman at work in an aviation plant during WWII by Alfred T. Palmer. Karen Hanmer: “Created for artists’ Bonefolder online Book Arts journal article on flag books, this set includes two different styles of flag book, and comes packaged with a hard copy of the article and a CD with a digital copy for reproduction and distribution to students.”
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The House George Built 2.5 x 4.5 x.75”; 71 pages. Flipbook with pigment inkjet prints. Perfect bound. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron. Not-so-subtle political comment. If only it were just a child’s game. Karen Hanmer: "An image of the White House deconstructs to represent blunders and evil-doings since the 2001 inauguration." |
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Pride Prejudice Passion: Whirlwind Romance 6.75 x 4.25 x 3" closed, 6.75 x 8.5 x 8.5" open; 7 double pages. Carousel structure. Inkjet prints and found images. You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me at once. My wishes are unchanged ... |
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| Pride Prejudice Passion: Head over Heels By Karen Hanmer Glenview, Illinois: Karen Hanmer, 2011. Edition of 2. 3.5 x 3.5 x 1.5" closed, 3.5 x 3.5 x 28" extended; 8 panels. Jacob's Ladder. Inkjet prints and found images. This Jacob's ladder bookwork alternates images of couples embracing and Austen text. The background pattern used on the panels is evocative of the Regency era striped textile patterns. In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. (SOLD) |
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Page last update: 03.18.2024
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