Exhibition ✨ Rachelle Reichert: Mai Tai at SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER presents “Recognize you when she sees you, Give you the things she has for you,” an exhibition of artists’ books from unique books to limited editions. Artists included are: Sonia Almeida, Polly Apfelbaum, Annie Bielski, Nancy Bowen, Sarah Braman, Dawn Breeze, Ria Brodell, A.K. Burns and Sophie Mormer, Cynthia Daignault and Curran Hatleberg, Patricia Fernández, Lilah Friedland, Kate Gilmore, Joanne Greenbaum, Bibbe Hanson, Tamar Halpern, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Laleh Khorramian, Melinda Keifer, Rosy Keyser, Rebecca Loyche, Shanekia McIntosh and Hudson Public Library, Xander Marro, Mallory Murphy, Kate Newby, Emma Ressel, Lil’ Deb’s Oasis, Rachelle Reichert, Incident Report, Karla Roberts, Kay Rosen, Brie Ruais, Carrie Schneider, Nancy Shaver and Jackson, Barb Smith, Laurel Sparks, Odessa Straub, Brittany Tucker, Katharine Umsted, Marianne Vitale, Letha Wilson, Carmen Winant, Sun You, and Suzanna Zak.

An intimate experience of an artwork is a privilege. To handle a work of art is to come to terms with its object-hood, to understand its materiality and impermanence. It is an investigation, a desire to comprehend a work’s own language of shape and material. From unlimited zines printed on Xerox paper, to unique works with folded inserts, the artist book cannot be verbally or visually summarized; it must be opened, pages turned, textures felt, orientation moved. From closely guarded sketchbooks to finely bound autobiographical reckonings, the artist book demands individual interaction and contemplation.

The artist who undertakes a work in book form does so in anticipation of it being held and materially comprehended. An artist highlights old tomes in bright hues with patterns set over text, both illuminating and hindering your attempts to understand the information of the original. She collects images of hundreds of births and jams them together, putting on display the raw bodily carnage of childbirth while couching it in a universality that numbs shock and induces awe. She cuts, inserts, layers, and folds pages with landscape images, creating textured collages with absences for you to maneuver. She wraps covers with fur inciting a soft and wild fragility.

Exhibition title adapted from John Ashbery’s poem At North Farm.