Handmade Path (2021)

Handmade Path (2021)
Lu Jingren, Amanda Degener, and Peng Wu
Black-inked card wrapper with magnetic closure. Handbound, handsewn, handmade paper cover book. H285 x W220 x D40 mm. 268pages. Edition of 350, of which this is #152. Acquired from Amanda Degener, 5 December 2022.
Photos: Books On Books.

Handmade Path presents 57 artists of paper and book who responded to 6 questions circulated by the editors. The editors asked the artists to provide handwritten replies to the questions as well as images of both their work and of their hands.

How did you begin your practice?
Why do you still make paper / books?
What is the difference for you reading on digital device or in a book?
In what way do you understand the 5 senses of paper / book: vision, touch, hearing, smelling, tasting?
Share with us some moments; eitherbreakthroughs or break downs in your work?
What is your next dream project?

Not all of the respondents replied in handwriting, but many sent their replies on material that reflected their work. The late Richard Flavin’s contribution arrived on gampi paper. Becky Beamer inked her reply on a gray handmade sheet. Radha Pandey’s came on indigo tinted handmade paper.

An open book featuring two pages: the left page displays an artistic collage made from handmade paper with textured elements, while the right page contains handwritten notes and a quote attributed to Richard Flavin about his experience with traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking and the importance of paper quality.

Richard Flavin

Becky Beamer

Radha Pandey

Jack Mader photographed these contributions in ways that render them visually haptic. It places that fourth question — “In what way do you understand the 5 senses of paper / book: vision, touch, hearing, smelling, tasting?” — at the core of the book. You’d swear you can feel the velvet texture of Mary Heebner’s 11 pages. Or the roughness of Helmut Becker’s colored handmade sheets or of Su Jin Kim’s white sculptural responses. The request for images of the artists’ hands naturally added to this sensory effect. There’s the glutinous wetness of pulp between the fingers of Jean Michel Letellier and Helen Hiebert and the imagined smell of the ink on George Roberts’ hands.

An open book page featuring artistic content, including text and illustrations. The left side presents a colorful illustration of a red and orange figure with text, while the right side includes handwritten notes and additional text in multiple languages. The page also features images of prayer flags and a collage by Mary Heebner, along with a brief bio.

An open book displaying handwritten notes on the left and right pages, with a wooden hand sculpture holding the left page. The text discusses the differences between writing on various media and the experience of reading a physical book versus a digital device.

Mary Heebner

An open book displaying handwritten notes on textured paper, highlighted with colorful pages. The left page contains notes related to nature and communication, while the right page features reflections on trees and their interactions.

Helmut Becker

A page from an art book featuring an image of a large textured piece resembling traditional clothing made of paper, alongside a portrait of a woman gazing upwards. Text about the artist Kim Su Jin and her work is included.

Open book spread featuring a textured page with a brownish pattern on the left and a circular page with printed text in black and white on the right, surrounded by wood.

Kim Su Jin

Hands mixing and kneading soft, fibrous material on a flat surface.

Two hands submerged in a box of white, fluffy substance, possibly foam or soft material, with one hand actively manipulating it.

Left: Jean Michel Letellier’s hands. Right: Helen Hiebert’s hands.

Close-up of two hands with visible dirt and wear, one wearing a gold ring.

George Roberts’ hands.

Throughout the book are truncated pages that act almost like bookmarks. Only midway through do we learn that they bear scanned images of handmade paper from Amanda Degener and Cave Paper. Degener provides an index describing the handmade papers, which oddly appears at page 142. Not only does it function as an index, it delivers information expected in a colophon. It even describes the paper used for the book’s cover, endpapers, and the clamshell tray. But nevermind, it’s all part of diving into the artists’ process and practice.

Page displaying various handmade paper descriptions including details on materials, processes, and page references.

Quite appropriately this midway index appears just after the entry for Nakagaki Nabuo, whose response to the opening question “How did you begin your practice?” comes in the form of an autobiographical handmade artist’s book. In the pages presenting his book, we see the artist, his hands at work on the book, and Mader’s precise photography of the book and its airmail envelope, followed by the bookmark-like stub with its image of Cave Paper’s Layered Indigo Day paper.

An open book with a unique design, featuring a tree illustration and colorful splashes on one page, alongside a portrait of artist Nakagaki Nobuo. The page includes text about his journey in book design and a quote discussing the importance of sensory experiences in books.

Nakagaki Nabuo and his hands at work.

An open book displaying colorful sketches and handwritten notes that reflect personal thoughts related to the passage of time and the significance of books. The sketches include trees, mountains, and abstract shapes, with accompanying text indicating different ages.

Nakagaki’s My Life Journey

An open book displaying a watercolor illustration of a tree on the left page, accompanied by handwritten text titled 'My Life Journey' and a letter addressed with postage stamps on the right page, along with descriptions of various papers.

Verso: Nakagaki’s answer to question 6: “What is your next dream project?” Recto: “Handmade Paper Descriptions” index/colophon.

In their preface, the editors write:

Although reading is a private activity we are not alone; we are cooperating with the book, bringing it into ourselves. Reading is not only about transplanting ourselves to the beyond, but we modify ourselves to see the world differently. Our vision or purpose for Handmade Path is for you to participate in this collaboration.

Just holding Handmade Path and constantly feeling its Alphabet Dao cover, navigating its foldouts alternating Chinese with English according to the contributor, being tempted to lift a contributor’s sheet of paper from the photos, hearing the snap and creak of sewn pages turning, and absorbing the contributors’ testaments, we cannot help but be drawn into participating with the book. In doing so, we learn that, as Paulette Myers-Rich puts it, “Paper is not a substrate — it is story” (p. 197).

Books On Books

Curated by Robert Bolick

Helmut Becker

Books On Books Collection – Lu Jingren, Amanda Degener, and Peng Wu

Handmade Path (2021)

Further Reading & Viewing