Symposium attendees enjoy Sandra Fernández’s artist presentation.
Special Collections and University Archives (SC/UA) hosted the 28th Annual New Jersey Book Arts Symposium (NJBAS) on November 4. The free event drew a capacity crowd in Alexander Library’s Pane Room and featured a workshop, artist presentations, and a panel discussion conducted by notable artists, curators, historians, and technologists. The program included:
To learn more about the NJBAS, please visit exhibits.libraries.rutgers.edu/nj-book-arts. Grant funding for the New Jersey Book Arts Symposium was provided by the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners through a grant award from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund. The NJBAS Advisory Board members are Karen Guancione, artistic director; Michael Joseph, founding director; Sonia Yaco, executive director; Martin Antonetti; Judith K. Brodsky; Fernanda Perrone; Amanda Thackray; Suzie Tuchman, and Kate Van Riper.
Suzie Tuchman conducts the triangle bookmaking workshop.Catherine LeCleire Wright shows symposium attendees how to create a triangle book.NJBAS attendees make triangle books during the workshop.Artist Sandra C. Fernández delivered a moving presentation about her life and work. Fernández is an Ecuadorian American artist currently living in New Jersey. Her work is rooted in the transborder experiences of exile, dislocation, relocation, memory, and self-conscious identity construction/reconstruction.Béatrice Coron, a renowned paper-cutting artist, and Rick Anderson, Director of Virtual Worlds at Rutgers, are collaborating on The Identity Project, an experiment both in form and content using technology to create an interactive artist book. This collaboration allows words and images to interact and behave in new and exciting ways. The Identity Project is presented by SC/UA. Learn more about the project at go.rutgers.edu/coron.Amee Pollack is a mixed-media and book artist and Senior Advisor and Student Success Counselor in the Department of Art & Design at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. She spoke about her art, which includes three-dimensional, fold-out book sculptures she had created with her artistic partner and close friend, Laurie Spitz, who passed away in 2017. Works by Spitz & Pollack, as their collaboration was known, are in the permanent collections of over 50 organizations, including the Brooklyn Museum, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York Public Library Print Collection, and Yale University. Read more at masongross.rutgers.edu/why-i-made-this-amee-pollack and ameejpollack.com.Featured artist and historian Javiera Barrientos presented “A Personal Catalogue: Bookwork in Contemporary Latin America” and highlighted works by Carlos Oquendo, Maria Lucia Cattani, Francisca Prieto, Isol, Javiera Pintocanales, and Mariana Tocornal.During her curator presentation, Virginia Fabbri Butera interviewed Michael Cooper about the late Rocco Scary’s bookwork. Rocco Scary (1960–2022) was a multidisciplinary artist whose work on paper, in sculpture, and with artist books explored the concept of the identifiers or “triggers” for memory. To learn more about Scary, please visit roccoscary.com. Butera is the director of the Therese A. Maloney Art Gallery. She is also chairperson of the art, dance, and music program and a tenured professor of art history at @saintelizabethuniversity. Cooper is the creative director at Altech Corporation and principal of Cooper Graphics and Cooper Art Works LLC. He has over 40 years of fine art and commercial art experience.NJBAS executive director Sonia Yaco (left) and noted artist and art educator Judith K. Brodsky. Brodsky led the engaging panel discussion that concluded the New Jersey Book Arts Symposium. The lively discussion offered attendees an opportunity to hear more from the guest artists and ask questions. Brodsky highlighted the commonalities between the topics, including technology, social issues, and a sense of play, and encouraged the artists to share their thoughts and processes and talk about the future of books and bookmaking. Brodsky is a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the Mason Gross School of the Arts Department of Visual Arts and the Founding Director of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, which was renamed the Brodsky Center in her honor in 2006 (now The Brodsky Center at PAFA).Panel discussion with the NJBAS’ guest speakers.From left: Karen Guancione, Sandra Fernández, and Sonia Yaco. Guancione is the NJBAS’ artistic director. She creates a vision of the symposium each year and moderates the event. Michael Joseph (below) is the founding director of the NJBAS. He and Karen guide the selection of the artists and help to shape the event. As executive director, Yaco coordinates the event, secures funding, and with Karen and Michael, connects with the New Jersey book arts community.Michael Joseph, founding director of the NJBAS.
Featuring prints, photographs, and multimedia artworks, this exhibition is the first time the university has conducted a comprehensive and methodical review of its holdings of art by Black women artists. Many of the artists have ties to New Jersey, New York City, and Philadelphia, ranging from canonical figures such as Rutgers faculty and artists Emma Amos and Kara Walker to emerging artists Nona Faustine, Atisha Fordyce, and Daonne Huff. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Amber Wiley, Assistant Professor, Art History, Rutgers University, and her students Jasmine Daria Cannon, Kyle b. co., Helen Gao, Grace Lynne Haynes, Emily Hu, Grace Kim, Desiree Morales, Michael Randall, and Audrey Roclore.
Artists: Emma Amos, Chakaia Booker, Barbara Bullock, Elizabeth Catlett, Nona Faustine, Atisha Fordyce, Nefertiti Goodman, Daonne Huff, Margo Humphrey, Stefanie Jackson, Carmen Cartiness Johnson, Nadine DeLawrence Maine, Nell Painter, Howardena Pindell, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Lorna Simpson, Shinique Smith, Renée Stout, Sharon E. Sutton (FAIA), Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Bisa Washington, and Carrie Mae Weems
Main Exhibition
Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library
8 Chapel Drive, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; weekends by appointment only. Hours are subject to the university libraries operating schedule.
Admission: Free and open to the public*
*Student tour guides, trained under the direction of student curator Kyle b. co. as part of the Douglass Faculty Fellows Program, will take place in the Douglass Library (Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries) through December 9 during the following times: Monday–Thursday, 4:00–6:00 p.m., and Friday, 4:30-6:00 p.m. No reservation is required for a tour, but if you would like to schedule a tour outside of the scheduled times, please email kco@mgsa.rutgers.edu to inquire. Availability of tour guides is limited outside of the set tour times.
Satellite Exhibition
Focus Gallery, Zimmerli Art Museum
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 12:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday, 11:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; Thursday, 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday.
Admission: Free and open to the public
Website: zimmerli.rutgers.edu
A series of special events with guest speakers, panel discussions, and roundtables will be held on November 9. For more details and to view the schedule, please visit zimmerli.rutgers.edu.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities and the Zimmerli Art Museum. Funding was provided by Douglass Residential College, the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, and an anonymous donation. Co-sponsored by the Institute for Women’s Leadership. The Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series is a program of CWAH in partnership with Rutgers University Libraries.
