Four Proposals for Reading: An Exhibition at the Seager/Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, CA, opens Saturday, February 7, 2015.
Four Proposals For Reading is an exhibition that challenges and highlights the experience of reading as it is experienced through a range of methodologies, processes, materials and formats. The four artists in this exhibition: Julie Chen, Clifton Meador, Barbara Tetenbaum, and Philip Zimmermann, all have long-standing commitments to the book as a central part of their artistic practice. In this exhibition they each make compelling arguments that the book, in its many forms, still has enormous power and validity in the hands of the reader.
Artists' books are a genre that uniquely positions reading as an essential part of the practice: a text—or series of meaning-laden signs—can appear anywhere, in any work. The book holds texts and supports experiencing those texts in a profoundly grounded manner through design, layout, pacing, materials, structure, and media. These four artists have created new work that addresses this dynamic through book forms, wall and installation art including one collaborative project.
The gallery reception coincides with the opening of the well-known biennial book art fair CODEX.
