Paper Souvenir ~ Alabama
(Jessica Peterson)

Ex-Slave
By Jessica Peterson
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Paper Souvenir, 2008. Edition of 45.

4.5 x 6.5"; 48 pages. The typeface is Centaur. Printed with photopolymer plates on Frankfurt paper. The cover, endsheets and inset papers are dyed with India ink and acrylic paint. Bound in paper covered boards. Designed and printed by artist.

The contents of this book are from taken the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves. The Writers' project ran from 1936 to 1938 during which over 2,000 interviews of former slaves were conducted. There was a methodology used in the interviews in how to transcribe the vernacular of the former slaves. This book by Jessica Peterson contains two narratives. Amy Chapman and George Young were slaves on the plantation of Governor Reuben Chapman which was located near Livingston, Alabama. In gathering information for this book Peterson found that parts of the original transcript of Amy Chapman's interview were excluded from the official Writers' Project Document. These excerpts have been included in this book and are identified by a thin line along the inside margin.

Besides the two slave narratives Ex-Slave includes a section on the "Documents from the Federal Writers' Project" about Negro Dialect Suggestions; Supplementary Instructions; Twenty Questions for the ex-slaves; and Notes by an editor on dialect.
$85

Witness, 1956
By Jessica Peterson
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Paper Souvenir, 2008. Edition of 60.

4.5 x 5.25"; 8 pages. Single sheet in french fold. Letterpress printed. Handmade paper made in the Lost Arch Papermill on the University of Alabama campus. Typeface: Garamond. Sources: The Schoolhouse Door by E. Culpepper Clark; The Tuscaloosa News; and The New York Times.

Jessica Peterson: "This is an abstracted map of the University of Alabama campus, marking the violent protests which took place during the first attempt at racial integration at the school. The only named physical landmark on the map is a live oak tree. The other locations on the map are indicated only by the events that transpired there, and a date. Witness, 1956 is a physical retracing of history, linking the past to the present."
$35

Habitat
By Jessica Peterson
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Paper Souvenir, 2007. Edition of 25.

7.5 x 11.5"; 12 pages. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates. Accordion format. Printed on cotton, flax, and abaca paper. Typefaces: Caslon 540 and Franklin Gothic Designed and printed by artist.

Jessica Peterson: "During the summer of 2007, I spent time in Mississippi working with the Biloxi Public Library on a book and document conservation project. I had never been to the Gulf Coast before. I was shocked by how much of Biloxi had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and how little repair there had been since. The effect of this was even more powerful after I spent a few weeks working with people whose lives and homes had been completely altered by Hurricane Katrina's destruction.

"Habitat is a letterpress printed artist book about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on Biloxi. I used image and personal narrative, as well as historical and scientific facts to evoke the emotional side effects of a natural disaster. ... Experimental papermaking techniques, such as pulp painting and collage, are used to enhance the content."
$200