Pages/Panels

I rarely get a chance to show my artists books so I'm excited for to have the opportunity to show a selection from 2010 to 2017 in the Atrium Gallery at the Lunder Arts Center in Cambridge.

A Very Small Guide to Chair Constellations

"A Very Small Guide to Chair Constellations." (2017)

A tiny little book measuring only 2 1/8 x 2 3/4 inches (which is exactly 1/8th of a standard US letter sheet of paper), printed in 2 colors on vintage 1940s onion skin typewriter paper. It is bound with handmade marble paper from Florence and hand sewn with red silk thread. There are 32 chair constellations total over 36 pages.

A Very Small Guide to Chair Constellations

2.125 x 2.75" page size, 4.25 x 2.75" opened

hand sewn signature binding

signed and numbered edition of 20

2017

copyright Kate Castelli

Sunday Studio

Something tiny little is brewing in the studio these days...

Artists' Book Cornucopia VII

I'm thrilled to have my book "Child of the Moon" selected to be included in the exhibition Artists' Book Cornucopia VII.

The seventh in an annual series of international juried exhibitions of contemporary artists' bookworks, Artists' Book Cornucopia VII includes work by 40 artists from the United States, Canada and Argentina. The series highlights a broad spectrum of works created under the artists book work umbrella, with unique sculptural works exhibited alongside more traditionally bound and printed works.

This year's selections were made by Margery N. Sly, Director of Special Collections and Kimberly Tully, Rare Book Curator, Samuel L. Paley Library, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The exhibition runs from September 16 through October 29, 2016.


Abecedarian Gallery 
910 Santa Fe Drive, #101
Denver, Colorado
http://www.abecedariangallery.com/

The Sketchbook Project 2016: Distance & Time

I'm down to the wire (per usual) on the deadline for The Sketchbook Project 2016. My prompt this year was "Distance and Time," which has been an underlying thread in my work for quite a while. The final book incorporated primary colors, constellation charts, early perspective diagrams from the Renaissance,  Florentine paper, and proof prints from my last woodblock circle series.

{vellum overlay} I had this anecdote in the back of my mind as I was working in the studio.

{pages 18-19}  Primary colors, graph paper, and numbers are constant threads throughout.

{pages 14-15} A vivid blue scrap of marbled paper from Florence combined with a Renaissance diagram and process prints.

{pages 6-7} an incomplete map of the universe...

The Sketchbook Project 2016: Distance & Time
22 pages, single signature binding
cut paper, vintage ephemera and woodblock proofs
9.875 x 6.75" opened
unique edition

copyright Kate Castelli 2016

Child of the Moon (take 2)

{Sketchbook page of the final page layout}

It started with last year's submission to the Sketchbook Project. That book felt like a rough draft of something bigger. I wanted to combine sketches, images of the moon, lyrics from the 1968 Rolling Stones song "Child of the Moon," and prints into a process book of sorts for the series of circle woodblocks I have been working on for the last few years.

This summer I changed the format to a square and sourced some new images of the moon from a NASA publication, but the book was still lacking something. So I put the project aside for a while.

{pages 4-5} a vellum overlay of a horizon diagram from Bruno Munari's "The Circle" (1964)

{pages 6-7} A spread with one of the cropped pages featured original prints, and images from a 1970 NASA publication.

When I began working on it again, I decided to use the mechanical wire binding to my advantage. I included vellum overlays with scientific and philosophical diagrams, I inserted cropped pages to reveal and obscure content, and I decided to include more original prints. The result was much more dynamic than the first two "drafts" and felt like an authentic process book that reflected the ideas I was interested in.

{pages 10-11} a vellum overlay of a late 16th century astronomical diagram

Child of the Moon
photocopies, ephemera, woodblock prints
22 pages, mechanically wirebound with linen hardcover
14.5 x 7.25" opened
unique edition
(copyright K. Castelli 2015)

Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize

My book Razzle Dazzle was selected to be included in the 2015 Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize. The biennial show features over 200 books from 45 different countries and is up through October 31st at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield, UK.

More info at http://artistsbookprize.co.uk/