Caden Collins ‘23
Eshika Tangri ‘23
EA’s gallery will host an exhibit this month to honor Women’s History Month. The show, titled “Taking a Page Out Of Her Book,” will feature pieces by EA parent and artist, Holly Brigham, as well as pieces by several other artists. Susan Coote, EA Gallery Coordinator, says, “I invited Holly Brigham to curate a show in honor of women’s history. She started working on artists’ books in collaboration with female poets, so she’s curating a show that’s going to include two of her pieces, which are large, sculptural artists’ books with her own artwork in them.” She continues, “All the people in the show in March are women; some of them are book artists, some of them are painters, and some of them are both. But this show is also unique because this time I’m more of a facilitator, and Holly is really the curator.”
Brigham herself will have two pieces featured in the show, Mother Monument, and Sacred Sisters. Asked about what her favorite part of making these pieces, she says, “I think it’s seeing an idea in my head and trying to figure out how to actually make that a reality. Mother Monument is an obelisk shape, so think of the Washington Monument, in DC, but it has images of women all over it. It’s a pretty striking object, and I think it will have a nice presence in the show. I just thought there should be a monument for women, and that piece is what I visualized in my head, so it was kind of amazing to see it actually come into being.” Brigham elaborates, “Artist books oftentimes do tricks, so they can be very sculptural, so the fact that this is called an artist book but yet it looks like a sculpture is really, really interesting, and the images are printed on book cloth, so the monument has that texture, but it also has images of my paintings.”
Brigham explains her vision, saying, “I hope that they learn about the women’s stories that are featured, and I hope women feel empowered by my work. I think it will also open people’s eyes to the fact that artist’s books are not regular books. They can look like a regular book, but oftentimes they’re not. Sacred Sisters can lie flat, but you can pull and extend it like an accordion. But then you can also stand it up, and it radiates out, creating like a star form in the center. Mother Monument actually has some doors on it that can open and close to reveal poems. It’s really a very enchanting art form, and I’ve fallen in love with making them.”
The pieces have been in the works for a long time. Brigham says, “I’m in a two year cycle; the first year is planning, and figuring out which poets you want to include-for instance, Mother Monument, includes eight women poets, so finding poets that I thought would be right for the project, having them write their poems, and figuring out the engineering of the book. So you do all of that, and the second year is the actual fabrication of the piece. Artist books are all made by hand, a lot of people don’t realize that, and the books are embellished by small additions. For Sacred Sisters, there are only twelve books, and for Mother Monument, there’s only ten. They have landed in really great collections, like the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, Mother Monument was collected by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC, Swarthmore College bought Sacred Sisters, and Smith College also bought Sacred Sisters. The Beinecke Library at Yale bought both of the books. So not only have they landed in these library collections, but also in a few museums, which is really amazing.”
“Taking a Page Out Of Her Book” will take place from March 2nd-April 18th, with a reception on March 18 from 11:30-1:00 PM, starting in the library with a poetry reading. Featured alongside Brigham are: Maria Pisano, Shellie Jacobson, Maryann Miller, Maureen Cummins, Gwen Diehn, J.C Todd, Marilyn Nelson, and Kim Bridgford.