black art books

REVIEW

WE, TOO, ARE BOOK ARTISTS

Website: Minnesota Center for Book Arts

What: Handmade books and book-inspired textiles, sculpture and other objects by about 20 contemporary African-American artists dealing with history, heritage, biography, social justice and political issues.

When: Ends Sept. 22., 2007

Where: Minnesota Center for Book Arts is located in
the Open Book Building in downtown Minneapolis
1011 Washington Ave S, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Phone: 612.215.2520
Fax: 612.215.2545

Review: By marrying artistic refinement to tough-minded content, these artists invigorate an art form -- the handmade book -- that can sometimes seem overly precious and obscure.

Tickets: Free. 612-215-2520 or www.mcba@mnbookarts.org.

Edgy and assertive, the exhibition title "We, Too, Are Book Artists" hints at prior neglect, a need to prove something, a desire to claim a rightful place in a spotlight. That's one goal of the 23 African-American artists included in the show, which runs through Sept. 22 at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts (MCBA).

Often precious and rarefied, "book arts" and "book artists" can seem pretty remote from the rough world of politics and the rude history of race relations in the United States. "We, Too" effectively challenges those parameters by insisting that artist-made books can be both beautiful in design and provocative in content.

The show's title also plays off the line "I, too, sing America," the opening of Langston Hughes' moving anthem of African-American self-assertion and belonging. Echoing Walt Whitman's epic hymn to American destiny, Hughes insists that eventually he, "the darker brother," also will have a place at the national table.

Curated by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., a printer, papermaker and self-described "book builder" based in Alabama, the show features handmade books, posters and book-themed sculptures that explore touchy subjects such as slavery, black poverty, the politics of race and U.S. history from a black perspective. It is the first large-scale exhibit of African-American book art and features work by some surprising artists, said Jeff Rathermel, the MCBA's artistic director.

He cited especially Kara Walker, primarily known as an installation artist, and Trenton Doyle Hancock, a painter, graphic novelist, cartoonist and storyteller. Walker's text includes her trademark silhouettes and a typewritten diatribe, while Hancock's uses detailed drawings and abstract designs to frame a story about vegans.

Some artists concentrate on aesthetic and design issues rather than politics, among them Clarence Morgan, who chairs the University of Minnesota's art department, and Paris-based typographer John Crombie. Morgan's accordion-fold booklet explains his working methods while Crombie pairs puns and rhyming words with childlike designs. Nevertheless, it is the political and historical tales that have the most resonance.

Politics and posters

Kennedy himself is a poster artist who issues broadsides through his studio, Kennedy Prints. Among his most memorable are 15 colorful sheets, each with a tough-minded quote from Rosa Parks about being fed up with demeaning treatment. He also designed a clever paper fan and a miniature fan-necklace bearing wise African proverbs.

Many of the most memorable books are laced with narrative details. Clarissa Sligh's "What's Happening With Momma?" is a house-shaped, accordion-fold book. When opened, each page has a sepia-toned family photo above a pop-out stairway on whose steps are printed a child's recollection of a family trauma. Sligh's "It Wasn't Little Rock" is a powerful recounting in words and photos of several life stories, beginning with lynchings in the Jim Crow era and carrying through to today.

In "Celebration: Imagination/Freedom," Sandra Oei muses about the life of Phyllis Wheatley, the Revolutionary War slave who became a poet. Handsomely presented in a ring-binder festooned with beads, the story unfolds elegantly in images and prose. Dindga McCannon prints tales of "bad ass women," and her own life, on fabric embossed with gold and copper paint and garnished with embroidery, photos, ribbons and beads.

Ben Blount is responsible for a black-culture ABC book that includes an illustration of "Oreo" ("a person that is black on the outside, but white on the inside") and a pamphlet about black politics containing a provocative quote linked with a portrait of presidental candidate Barack Obama.

One of the inevitable frustrations of the exhibition is that most of the books are displayed in protective cases and can't be touched because they are on loan from private collections or museums, including Walker Art Center.

A few, however, can be "gently handled." Take advantage of this opportunity and read them, especially Blount's "Africans in America: A Short History." Bound in dark textbook linen, "Africans" looks like a dry treatise, but all 388 pages -- several edged in blood red -- can be read in a single sitting. Without giving away any secrets, suffice to say that its minimalist text packs as much punch as a Harry Potter adventure and will echo in your mind for a long time.

Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431 • mabbe@startribune.comREVIEW

Art: Black books

Related: Discover the African Art portal www.african-antiques.com