From Right to Left book
From Right to Left

By Wendy Fernstrum
Minneapolis, Minnesota: fernwerks, 2012. Edition of 25.

8.25 x 8.25"; 20 pages. Background and photographic images screenprinted. Line art and text letterpress printed using photopolymer plates and wood type during a residency at Women's Studio Workshop. Drumleaf binding. Paper-covered boards. Inset paper title label on front board. Signed, numbered, and dated by the artist on the colophon.

3 x 3"; 8 pages. Miniature book "Balance: Evenness Is Harmony" bound into larger book. In wraps with title printed on front cover.

Wendy Fernstrum: "From Right to Left is an artist book about the effects of changing one's dominant hand. Through the personal narrative, I tell the story of why and how I switched from my right to my left as my dominant hand. I wrote this narrative using both my right and left hands, then scanned the handwriting, made photopolymer plates, and printed it letterpress.

"Other text in the book describes the use of the right and left hands in our culture and explains the effects in the brain of changing dominant hands.[On pages 9 and 10] I drew the two neurons using my left hand, then scanned the drawings, made plates, and printed them letterpress. The background neuron was drawn dot by dot and screenprinted.

"This is the first artist book where I combined both screenprinting and letterpress printing. ... [Pages 13 and 14] shows a book within a book. The small book was letterpress printed using text excerpted from Light on Life, a book about yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar. The text explains the need for balance between the right and the left sides of the body. The small book is sewn into the drumleaf binding used for the larger book."
$425