Show & Bestow at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Show & Bestow features the newly assembled Ruth Hughes Artist Book Collection, which will be donated to Oberlin College's Clarence Ward Art Library in Ruth's honor. I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth at the Philadelphia Center for the Book's Book, Paper, Scissors Fair a couple of weeks ago. Over 70 books have been donated, and can be viewed through the end of December at the Free Library of Philadelphia Art & Picture Collection Galleries on the 2nd floor, 1901 Vine Street.

An Atlas of Rooms was an obvious choice for me to donate to the collection, as two of the vignettes were oh-so-secretly inspired by folks I befriended while I was at Oberlin myself.

More images of the exhibit can be found on the web page of Alice Austin, who generously assembled this collection.

The Welcome House at the Painted Bride

Greetings from the Welcome House is on view at the Painted Bride, featuring video documentation of the October Welcome House event in Love Park. Book Bombs is much obliged to Ricardo Rivera for capturing our day of public paper art so beautifully. Please come to the opening Friday, November 6, 5-7, to check it out, or stop by during gallery hours in November and December. The Welcome House structure itself will be on view in the exhibition Shelter, also on view through the end of the year at the Painted Bride.

Come out on Friday!

The Welcome House project is now underway, with residencies each day in Love Park and an opening party tonight from 7-10.

Please come by on Friday between 10 and 6 (or so) to make your own print in handmade paper pulp and contribute to an amazing community installation.

Book Bombs at the Welcome House, October 9

BOOK BOMBS SHELTER PART OF THE WELCOME HOUSE PROJECT October 9, 2009 10am-6pm Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Philadelphia, PA - Sept. 22, 2009 - Philadelphia's First Person Arts Festival is proud to host BOOK BOMBS as part of the Welcome House Project. BOOK BOMBS is a collaboration between artists Mary Tasillo and Michelle Wilson. The Welcome House is a 10 foot by 10 foot transparent cube installed in Philadelphia's own Love Park, featuring artist projects by day and video of the day's activities by night. On October 9, 2009, 10am-6pm, as part of their day-long residency, BOOK BOMBS will utilize handmade paper and community participation to create a site-specific one-night installation called Book Bombs Shelter. This event is free and open to the public. BOOK BOMBS is a collaborative, site-based zine project examining Philadelphia parks and benches as social spaces, shelters and art galleries, and will culminate next year as a component of PHILAGRAFIKA 2010. For Book Bombs Shelter, Tasillo and Wilson invite the population of Love Park, including office workers, skateboarders, protesters, passers-by, and the homeless, to create works in handmade paper about Love Park. The resulting papers will be attached while still wet to the interior of the Welcome House, creating an evolving visual conversation about the nature of urban public space in general and Love Park in particular. In addition, the pieces will be documented on the project blog and used as material for the upcoming zine publication about shelter, homelessness, and urban space during PHILAGRAFIKA 2010. The Welcome House is a project conceived and curated by artist Marianne Bernstein and presented by First Person Arts in collaboration with InLiquid.com. Designed to re-imagine art spaces, art practice, and community engagement, artists were invited to propose one-day residencies using the space as a nexus for public interaction. All daytime events will be filmed by klip collective videographer Ricardo Rivera and projected onto the cube at night for public viewing. Following the project will be an exhibition of the works created in the Welcome House at the Painted Bride Art Center, located at 230 Vine Street in Philadelphia, in November 2009. The exhibition will remain on display during the First Person Arts Festival and through the end of 2009. SUGGESTED LISTING October 9, 2009, 10am-6pm: Book Bombs Shelter, a collaborative public art project by Mary Tasillo and Michelle Wilson, part of the Welcome House Project. Love Park, 15th and JFK Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA. Free and open to the public. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Mary Tasillo is a book, print, text, and paper artist based in Philadelphia, PA. She is also a teacher, writer, and independent scholar. She balances limited edition work with the democratic multiple to ensure the broadest possible audience. Mary holds an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Michelle Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on social and environmental issues. Through the use of intersecting narratives, she creates situations that transform history into invented mythology, and asks viewers to consider the impact of their choices upon a larger world.

Bike Part Art Show

For those in Philadelphia, please add the Bike Part Art Show to your calendar! I'm participating in this annual fundraiser for Neighborhood Bike Works. The show, featuring art from s will be up August 28 to September 18 at Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Ave, culminating in a Silent Auction, craft boutique, and general party on September 18, 7-10pm.

Book Bombs

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the Book Bombs blog at http://bookbombing.blogspot.com. In this collaborative project with Michelle Wilson, I will be installing prints and zines around the city this coming winter in conjunction with Philagrafika 2010. The blog will be documenting our progress along the way, and recent posts include guerrilla weeding of mugwort for handmade paper for the project and a link to Barbara Ehrenreich writing in the NYTimes about the criminality of being poor -- germane to our topic of park benches and public spaces. Follow that feed!

Naropa Day 6

Last night I fell asleep to visions of the press bed - rearranging type and furniture - and later dreamed of things Philly. Time to go home. The fridge is empty of burritos, the blueberries are gone, and the print shop key has been returned.

7 broadsides came out of the shop this week (plus 1 collaborative book). 2 of those broadsides will be contributed to the al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside project. By 6:00 today I was ready to be out of the shop, and before long, off to the final evening of faculty readings: C.S. Giscombe, Steven Taylor, Simone Forti, Michelle Ellsworth.

Now it is time to pack. The prints will just fit into the suitcase.