These books are
self-made published works.
Publish: “to disseminate to the public;” “to produce or release for distribution.” (Merriam-Webster)
This body of work is meant to expand perceptions on what a book is and what it means to “be published.” Creativity is not just about making the work itself; it’s also about how we release that work into the world. Instead of waiting for the the right set of variables, the right moment, or the right person to select it, we can also be creative in how we resource the tools we have right now.
This body of work is a reminder that we all have the rights to give platform to our own voice’s expression.
Book No. 1
Letters to the Self, for Remembering
Taking creative work from under the bed and making it public.
6.5 years of journal writing processed into a single work + the paper processed into the covers that contain it.
Book No. 2
Top 40
My Top 40 Favorite Things in the World, written + read aloud for my 40th birthday.
Now in tiny book format for keeping, treasuring, gifting, remembering.
Also available in “blanks” if you are inspired to make your own.
On Form & Content
What my art training drilled into me was the marriage of form and content and that those two should not and really cannot be divorced. This is the lesson my artist self gives daily to my writer self. Words and language and stories and the communication of things do not just belong between the pages of a book. The book is just another box to think outside of.
My artist makes my writer look at the content of what I am trying to say and search for the right form in which to say it.
So here is my artist statement my writer wrote:
Form is always a choice, not a given.
It is something to be thought about, decided.
It supports the content, the thing it holds, what is inside.
This makes it a container.
The container is also the content.
The container is the solid form for what is fluid inside it. They are one and the same – one simply a shell for the other, just as your skin holds what is inside your body. It is the right form for your content, and you couldn’t walk around without it.
This concept is present in everything I do, in everything I make, every form consciously chosen to support what is inside.
I made my books handmade on purpose. Because the form communicates another layer: the power of the self to make things, the autonomy we each have to bring what is inside us into physical being, and that you don’t need anyone else to do that, to give permission, to hand you a pre-approved container for your creativity. If I took those books to a publisher and had them mass printed, you wouldn’t get it. The message would be lost. The message wouldn’t even exist anymore. The words inside would be there, yes, but one of the most important layers would be stripped off. The body without its skin is not really a body. The cupcake without the frosting is just a breakfast muffin.
So I chose my form intentionally. I choose it every time.
I am asking you to choose your forms intentionally. To pay attention to them.
All of my work is a dialogue, whether or not you and I ever speak.
I am always posing a question that I hope you will consider and eventually answer. And it’s really none of my business what your answer is. The fact you’re thinking about it is what I care about. My “job” (the one I have assigned myself, or the one my unique set of abilities has assigned me and that I have accepted) is to make your mind get up and move.
Did I just do it?