Beloved Community Found in Book Art

Hand-made books are the hot new art collectibles and we are pleased to have The Slow Book Salon, a group of Western North Carolina artists, using the festival's theme "The Beloved Community" as a focus for a book art show at The Design Gallery, 7 South Main Street, Burnsville. The show will be up through September 27. For more information, call the Gallery at 828-678-9869.

The display consists of three parts. Using Britt Kaufmann's festival-commissioned poem These Three Counties, artists have created a collaborative piece, using various media to express individual interpretations of Britt's words. Other artists used the festival's overall theme to present their ideas of a beloved community. The third display includes traditional hand-made journals and books.

Stretching the definition of a book, the book art includes calligraphy, poetry, clay shapes, photo collages, water colors, and mica pages. One display, Renaissance by Moe Hoxie, includes three small books held inside a wood structure created from the off-cuts of her husband's furniture making.

Each book traces the origins of the Renaissance period of art and culture, symbolizing the arts impact on community and the renaissance artists experiences when they create.
The Village Idiot by Margaret Cogswell is a wire structure with dunce caps at its top; in the middle a small book titled Beloved Idiots is tenderly held in a wire circle. Carol Norby's book illustrates Kaufmann's poem with water-colors, photos, and words.

Annie Cicale's Elements and Principles delivers her interpretations through distinctive calligraphy, quotes that evoke conversation between the authors of the words, and color-work. This show's variety of book expressions offers multiple points of entry for the viewer.

Three years ago the Slow Book Salon formed to provide an opportunity for people interested in the book arts to interact, share ideas, offer technical support, and ward off artist loneliness.