The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) features two smaller exhibits that develop these ideas as part of its larger theme of “Beyond Words.” The exhibit “Speaking Volumes: The Language of Artists’ Books” (through May 23) displays various handmade books, either one-of-a kind prints or very limited editions, from more than 20 international artists.
The books incorporate vintage techniques such as calligraphy, hand binding, letterpress, papermaking, stitching and sculpting, among others. The JMKAC complements the exhibit with a video that explains the unusual but intimate medium of art books.
In a fascinating piece titled Hanging Index (2010), artist Scott McCarney dissects a reference book. A large black-and-white hardcover frame hangs from the ceiling with the book’s contents—thin strips of pages—tumbling to the floor, resembling a 6-foot paper tassel. This piece may exemplify that encyclopedias and other reference books are merely for ornamentation in today’s world, having become obsolete in the glow radiating from the dominant PC.
An ominous impression emerges from Toby Lee Greenberg’s gold foil book The Menu (1995). The imprinted words on these expensive, ivory pages recall an intensely personal dinner. The one on view consists of Steak & Eggs, Toast with Jelly, Milk & Coffee (offered but declined). This meal records the last repast of Theodore Bundy, on Jan. 24, 1989, 7:16 a.m., in Starke, Fla. All of Greenberg’s menus speak to the last meals of executed prisoners, upending the romantic notion of fine dining.
Every book in this exhibition offers similarly provocative ideas and incomparable expertise.
In another room, the JMKAC installs an exhibition titled “Heather Willems: Writing the Making” (through May 2). This exhibit evokes Claes Oldenburg, whose oversized everyday items made the ordinary larger than life. Willems, a New York artist, hangs two 40-by-9-foot scrolls from corners of the ceiling and records a stream of consciousness.
Hand-scribbled in graphite are details of daily life, including grocery lists and telephone numbers, as the scrolls shed light on the time these trivial notes and minutiae occupy in a person’s life.
When studied from a distance, however, the two diagonal sheets merge into gently sloping hills marked with land patches created by script, as one might see from an aerial perspective.
At a Milwaukee gallery appropriately named The Tenth Street Theatre Gallery, housed in the Tenth Street Theatre’s spacious lobby, photographer William Zuback seeks an alternative expression to previously written texts. His recently opened exhibition “Book Passages” (through April 9) features black-and-white photographs accompanied by written words.
The subject material plays with the ironic, satirical and surreal while adding his visual interpretation to the printed words. In Zuback’s image Glam Slam an immaculately attired young woman holds a Rubik’s Cube designed with nude female body parts. Underneath the photograph are excerpts taken from Kit Reed’s book Thinner Than Thou: “Perfect hair, you need. Perfect abs and pecs. Image is everything.”
Zuback’s collection expertly connects photography and literature. Overall, each of these exhibitions imaginatively reinterprets modern conversations and the use of language in superb, unconventional artworks that should initiate further creative dialogue.
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