Move Your Way to the Kohler Art Library

March 11, 2014
Ode to a Grand Staircase (For Four Hands), byJulie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum. Berkeley, CA: Flying Fish Press; Portland, OR: Triangular Press, 2001.
Ode to a Grand Staircase (For Four Hands), by Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum

Make your way to the Kohler Art Library to see a beautifully designed new exhibit, curated by sixteen different people, titled Mobile Devices: Conveying Movement in Text, Image, and Material.

This exhibition explores the theme of mobility—physical, mental, poetic, social, economic, and geographic—within a collection of artists’ books at the Kohler Art Library.  Doing so provides the opportunity to showcase the range of cultural and artistic issues addressed by contemporary book arts.  Some of these issues include immigration, evolution, travel, money, the status of women, cultural exchange, nature and science, and fantasy and the imagination.

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Photo Credit: Susie Seefelt Lesieutre

Within these books, movement is conveyed through many prisms: the passing of time, distance travelled, exploration, experimentation, sequencing and progression, repetition, fluidity, aspiration and spiritual growth, chance, and anonymity.  A number of the “mobile devices” unfold and expand by means of accordion folds.  With embedded movement and flexibility, the structures invite physical interaction with the viewer.

This exhibition was curated by sixteen graduate students enrolled in LIS: 839 (Art Librarianship) during spring 2014.  Each student selected and researched an artists’ book from the Kohler Art Library and wrote a caption label.  The students worked collaboratively to install the exhibition.

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Photo credit: Susie Seefelt Lesieutre

Even with the large amount of people involved with the exhibit, the pieces and the layout fit together cohesively — which is not an easy feat!

The curators are:  Oliver Bendorf, Lauren Gottlieb-Miller, Carolina Hernandez, Dustin Karls, Shauna Koszegi, Mary Kathryn Kwasnik, Ellen LeClere, Michele Loran, Mariza Morin, Sona Pastel-Daneshgar, Bryce Porter, Rebecca Robbennolt, Laura Rudquist, Susan Seefelt Lesieutre, Kaitlin Springmier, and Jamie Stanaway. Special thanks also goes to Dan Joe, GLS Graphic Designer.

At a Glance:

  • What: Mobile Devices: Conveying Movement in Text, Image, and Material
  • Where: Kohler Art Library, Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, 800 University Avenue
  • When: Exhibit runs until June 3, 2014. (Open Art Library Hours)
  • Cost: free and open to the public
  • Parking: View available parking garages here.

Want more information? Contact the Kohler Art Library through email or phone: (608) 263-2258.