Artist and Curator Tour
6-7:30 PM (Tour starts at 6:30 PM)

Join curator Jessica Cochran along with exhibition artists, for a walk-through of Let’s Do It: Twenty-three Years of Book and Paper The Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1994 – 2017. The tour will begin with a close look at new works that were commissioned on the occasion of the exhibition and continue to highlights from the Center’s past–including artist resident works, publishing projects over two decades, and ephemera from the archives. This tour aims to provide a deeper understanding of the Center for Book and Paper Arts’ legacy and influence, as well as provide some important context for contemporary book and paper practices today.

Let’s Do It presents newly commissioned projects by artists affiliated with the Center for Book and Paper Arts–alum, of sorts–alongside artwork, photographs, and documents from the Center’s archives. In siting the past alongside the present, we can form a picture of what a book and paper practice looks like today.

From artists’ books to installation, both newly commissioned projects and archival materials will reveal the spectrum of practices that thrived at the Center and that were presented through exhibitions, residencies, and publishing. It was through these activities that the Center made great strides in not only the “centering” of book, paper, and print from the margins of contemporary art but also in helping audiences better understand these practices and mediums aesthetically and historically.

New Projects by:
Hannah Batsel with Audrey Niffenegger, Ben Blount, Brad Freeman and Johanna Drucker, Fata Morgana Press, Krista Franklin, and Melissa Hilliard Potter

Additional Contributions and artworks by:
Jeff Abell, Laura Anderson Barbata, Alex Borgen, Paul Catanese, Don Colley, Reni Gower, Tom Greensfelder, Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë, Alison Knowles, Kate McQuillen, Clifton Meador, Miller & Shellabarger, Ayanah Moor, C. Alva Mooses, Kate Morgan, Teresa Pankratz, Judith Poirier, Bruno Richard and Mark Fischer, Miriam Schaer, Vida Sacic, April Sheridan, Stacey Stern, Marilyn Sward, Amaranth Borsuk / Kate Durbin / Ian Hatcher, and others.

This program is presented by the Department of Exhibitions, Performance, and Student Spaces and created with research support from Julia Arredondo and College Archives & Special Collections at Columbia College Chicago. This is supported by the Art & Art History exhibition Department at Columbia College Chicago and partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Let’s Do It: Twenty-three Years of Book and Paper
The Center for Book and Paper Arts, 1994 – 2017
September 3 – October 23, 2019
Reception: September 12, 5-8pm

Image: Hannah Batsel with Audrey Niffenegger, installation shot

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Tags: Alex Borgen, Alison Knowles, Amaranth Borsuk, April Sheridan, Ayanah Moor, Ben Blount, Brad Freeman and Johanna Drucker, Bruno Richard and Mark Fischer, C. Alva Mooses, Chicago, Clifton Meador, Don Colley, Fata Morgana Press, Glass Curtain Gallery, Hannah Batsel with Audrey Niffenegger, Ian Hatcher, Jeff Abell, Jessica Cochran, Judith Poirier, Kate Durbin, Kate McQuillen, Kate Morgan, Krista Franklin, Laura Anderson Barbata, Let's Do It: Twenty-three Years of Book and Paper, Let's Do It: Twenty-three Years of Book and Paper The Center for Book and Paper Arts 1994 - 2017, Loop, Marilyn Sward, Melissa Hilliard Potter, Miller & Shellabarger, Miriam Schaer, Paul Catanese, Reni Gower, Sheroanawë Hakihiiwë, Stacey Stern, Teresa Pankratz, The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Tom Greensfelder, Vida Sacic