project gutenberg project
by Jeff Rathermel
September 23-November 18, 2011
Opening Reception September 23, 7-10pm
Closing event:
November 11, 7-9pm
Keep in Touch: Physicality in Contemporary Art
The Artist in conversation with
Marianne Combs & Paulette Myers-Rich
.
Saved words, broken books, new appreciation
More and more, we are giving up the tangible for the digital.
Project Gutenberg Project responds to this by celebrating the material beauty of the book and the value of tactile experience.
Using book remains to create two and three dimensional work, this project both embraces and criticizes the power of technology to shape our understanding of the world.
The idea for the project grew out of a donation received by the
Minnesota Center for Book: broken, dis-bound, trashed books. There were great works of literature, minor literary works,
beautiful papers, illustrations, bits and pieces of varying quality that were the remains of the process of digitizing libraries undertaking by Project Gutenberg.
In order to save the words, the books were destroyed. The organization could use little of what remained. Jeff Rathermel looked at these remains with the eyes of an artist who has been
devoted personally and professionally to book and paper arts for years.
Project Gutenberg Project may be viewed simply at face value - a commentary on digital libraries and the "demise" of physical books - but it also has deeper underpinnings that explore notions
of aesthetics, immediacy, cultural values and the basic human need to engage all senses to most effectively and satisfactorily experience the world they live in.
And the reasonably priced objects and publications are just plain beautiful.
