The Metaphoric Body

Vessels & voids

Ruth Lingen. Vessels & voids: physical conditions and most remarkable phenomena of the world. Illustrated by Donald Traver. New York, NY: Poote Press, 1994.

Toni Dove. Mesmer: secrets of the human frame. New York, NY: Granary Books, 1993.

Anna Hepler. Hunger. Madison, WI: Beo Press, 1994.
Shelagh Keeley.Notes on the body.New York, NY: Granary Books, 1991.
Susan Elizabeth King. Treading the maze: an artist’s book of daze. Rochester, NY: Montage 93, International Festival of the Image: Visual Studies Workshop, 1993.

Claire Van Vliet. Beauty in use. Poems by Sandra McPherson inspired by her collection of African-American quilts. Newark, VT: Janus Press, c1997.

In this case the books represent the artists’ interest in the experience of the body’s physical conditions and emotional needs.

The unusual format of Susan Kings’s Treading the maze allows the reader to turn pages from the left and from the right, superimposing images and text to yield a multi-layered reading. This book explores questions of disease and healing, and the travels, physical and spiritual, that are part of that process.

Claire Van Vliet has published many books related to women’s work and quilt making. Sandra McPherson’s poems for Beauty in use were inspired by her collection of African-American quilts. The book evokes the human need for physical shelter as well as spiritual sustenance. The pages of Anna Hepler’s book Hunger are made of cloth handkerchiefs that are sewn and stufffed with various aromatic spices. The fabric and materials used in this piece have a domestic, prosaic feel, and the stained, kitchen-scented leaves create a sense of ache and longing.

Vessels & voids: physical conditions and most remarkable phenomena of the world is a collaboration between Ruth Lingen and Donald Traver. This book combines lush, visceral printmaking techniques with an unusual book material: (archival) cardboard. The images alternate between body-like vessels and the voids of outer space.

Toni Dove’s book Mesmer is about female identity. It represents images of the body in several guises. The materials used in the binding are perforated metal and translucent metallic mylar. They present the body of the book as an artificially concealed and simultaneously revealed structure – a commentary on the construction of identity.

In her work for Notes on the body, Shelagh Keeley combines photocopy transfers of anatomical drawings with her own directly drawn and painted pages. Known primarily for her work as an installation artist, Keeley’s choreography of the images within the space of the book reflects that practice.