Books Breathing: Volumes
This group of images explores books and their enduring presence. As new ways of reading and understanding emerge, I am drawn back to the physical object of the book and consideration of its meaning and legacy, from an abandoned encyclopedia to a still vibrant bookstore, from a frayed ancient volume to a stack of newly handmade sketchbooks, from the reluctantly discarded to the newly discovered.
I photograph both in my studio and in “the field”, the field being bookstores, book sales, libraries, beaches and cars, from Asheville to Rome, from Mendocino to St. Augustine. The studio work is an opportunity to explore individual books, reflecting on the form as well as the content. One of my handmade books is on the subject of books, a concertina called Book Time. Writing will persist, thrive and reach wide audiences, but these worlds sewn between boards, cloth, decorative endpapers, bookplates and dedications to beloveds will become more rare. We treasure our home library, a place where people, especially children, are drawn to spend time. I like the words attributed to Cicero: “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” The way of the book is deep in us.
