“I transform books–recognizable symbols of recorded and shared information–and their pages into new forms, using the iconic materials to consider the recursive nature of ideas, regardless of how they were recorded e.g., in manuscripts, books, digital formats. Because I look at gain and loss, remembrance and lapses, permanence and impermanence, images of trees, plants and other organisms that have visible regeneration cycles, as well as the materials derived from them, are interpreted in my art.”
via Holly Senn – installation art, sculpture, conceptual art.
Senn is known for these sculptures and installations created from discarded library books. Through forms like the chestnut burr above, her art represents how ideas are generated and dispersed, or through the transformation of books into empty hornets’ nests, how they are abandoned and forgotten.
The craft and artistry is superlative. Do these bookworks reward re-viewing and contemplation the way the bookworks of
Hand-cut books and hardwood base
or the mystery Edinburgh book artist do?
She is on her way to finding out: “Recent installations include “Inhabit” at Gallery @ the Jupiter in Portland; “Link” at Tollefson Plaza in Tacoma; “Cover” at Doppler PDX in Portland; “Re-Present” at Spaceworks in Tacoma; “Tale” at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland; and “Windows on Nature and Knowledge” at Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn. Awards include the Artist Trust Grant for Artists Projects and a Tacoma Arts Commission Tacoma Artists Initiative Program grant.”
Books On Books 