Book Marks: An Artist’s Card Catalog, Notes from the Library of My Mind
BARBARA PAGE
LIMITED AVAILABILITY
“Book Marks will be of great interest to art aficionados as well as lovers of memoir, travel, nature and literature.”
—Arthur Whitman, Ithaca Times
Described by the art critic of the Ithaca Times as “affecting” and “impressionistic” and a “literary-visual work of art,” this captivating blend of art book and autobiography illuminates how books can leave indelible impressions on our lives. Artist Barbara Page has written evocative biographical vignettes to accompany the 434 richly illustrated artworks included in Book Marks, a portion of the ongoing art project that documents her reading history. Together, the narrative and “book marks” created on repurposed library checkout cards explore how books and our memories of them define our lives—in a sense, bookmarking the moment. These compelling artworks resonate and inspire, as will Barbara Page’s story.
April 2021
Hardcover
224 pages
408 color plates, with 57 illustrations
2 bookmark ribbons
7.75 x 11.75 inches
ISBN: 978-1735600109
$40.00
Description
Book Marks is a visual journey through a lifetime of reading and remembering.
This alluring combination of art and memoir will capture the imagination. At its heart are hundreds of 3 x 5-inch artworks—intricate collages and drawings artist Barbara Page created on new and used library checkout cards. Part of an ongoing art project that began as a method for remembering the books she had read, each of these small works represents a single publication that left an indelible mark on the artist. Before long, Page started to reconstruct her entire reading history based on memory, starting with picture books from early childhood. To date, she has created more than 800 cards, which she houses in a two-drawer library case. More than half are reproduced in this book.
As a collection, these artworks represent over seventy years of literature, politics, thought, and culture—as characterized by one woman’s reading choices. They interpret a lifetime of reading and illuminate how books inform and are informed by events in our lives. Sections of the artworks are interwoven with personal accounts of the artist’s life that chronologically align with the years in which Page read the books interpreted on each card. These literary, historic, and scientific works drive the narrative, directly and indirectly. Page recounts many episodes from her past, from the inconsequential to the life changing, and the books that helped shape and guide her. Like many, Barbara Page discovers strength in the words of authors, and, through reading, she gains knowledge that feeds her personal growth and scientific interest in the world around her.
Book Marks is a fascinating journey. As we delve into Barbara Page’s personal narrative and try to decipher her artworks, many of us might find ourselves pondering the role of memory in our lives, or at the very least, we will discover new books to read.
Advance Praise
“It’s a stunning achievement and an utter delight. Barbara Page tells her story, which is also the story of thousands of women who grew up in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, as first a girl and then a young woman trying to make sense of life and family and nature and art in her quest for knowledge. In reading Book Marks, I had many moments of recognition, often subtle and moving—many of us will talk a lot about this book.”
–Gay Daly, author of Miss Havilland, A Novel and Pre-Raphaelites in Love
“Book Marks left me in awe. These cards—or placeholders for memories—are endearing for their authenticity and ability to connect us to our own journeys and the books that made a difference in our lives. I enjoyed getting the connection when I knew the book, and, when I didn’t, the artwork was a significant teaser, greatly expanding my reading list! It reads as a literary memoir, revealing how books served to sooth, excite, or interpret the many seasons of the author’s life. Her willingness to push herself to investigate the world was inspiring. And her frank and transparent resentment at the deaths of her loved ones was insightful and honest.”
–Benita VanWinkle, documentary photographer and Associate Professor of Art, High Point University
About the Author
Barbara Page is an artist, triathlete, and avid reader. She received her MFA from Cornell University and is a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and was artist-in-residence at the Golden Foundation. Page’s work is included in museum and corporate collections and among her massive site-specific projects is Rock of Ages, Sands of Time at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York. The installation contains 544 bas-relief paintings that depict the history of life. In 2001, the University of Chicago Press published a book on the project. At the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Page fulfilled a commission for a mural called Lost Horizons and tiles depicting a geological timeline for a 140 foot pedestrian bridge. On a much smaller scale, the Book Marks project was exhibited at The Center for Book Arts in New York City and at various libraries as part of a traveling group show, Artists in the Archives: A Collection of Card Catalogs.
