Chicago Book Artist to Speak, Lead Workshop
LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 25, 2011) − Chicago bookbinder Karen Hanmer will be the visiting book artist for the King Library Press's Spring Book Arts Event. Karen Hanmer's Spring Book Arts lecture, “Retro-Tech: Artists’ Books, Design Bindings, Installation,” will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 1, in the Niles Gallery, located in the University of Kentucky Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Karen Hanmer's work layers text and image to intertwine cultural and personal memory. The intimate scale and gestures of exploration employed to travel through each piece evoke looking through an album, diary or the belongings of a loved one. The work is often playful in structure or content and may include social commentary.
Pieces of Hanmer's work have been exhibited widely and are in the collections of Graceland, the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Hanmer won the 2009 Jury Prize for Binding at the Helen DeGolyer Awards for American Bookbinding.
In addition to Hanmer's lecture, Little Fine Arts Library will mount a showing of Hanmer’s work from the library’s collection of artists’ books.
During her visit to the Bluegrass, Hanmer will also lead a workshop on constructing an artists’ book at the King Library Press on Saturday, April 2, at the M.I. King Building. Cost for the workshop, which includes continental breakfast and lunch, is $35. Pre-registration is required. To register for the Book Art Workshop, call 257-8408 or contact klijdb@uky.edu for further details.
The annual Spring Book Arts Weekend is historically presented by the King Library Press. The press is devoted to the tradition of fine printing and produces books and broadsides. Recent publications available from the press include a portfolio of five poems by Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry Vance, Necia Harkless's "Heart to Heart" and Abraham Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address."
For more information on the King Library Press Spring Book Arts Weekend, contact Jim Birchfield, in the Special Collections Library, at klijdb@uky.edu or call (859) 257-8408.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-1754 ext. 229; Whitney.Hale@uky.edu