Book and Paper Commons^™

The Little Poems Of Barbara Erskine, Jan Baker, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

Altered book created by Jan Baker (1950-2018). Jan Baker was an accomplished artist and RISD Professor of Graphic Design (1981-2017) guiding students through book arts, letterpress, papermaking, bookbinding, and visual poetry in the Graphic Design department. For 37 years, she infused her classes and the campus community with the magic and meaning that comes from the handmade. Lettering, cutting, folding, binding, inventing, collecting - these were some of Jan's favorite things. Read more. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition Stacked & Altered, summer 2022.

The Inner Shrine, Jan Baker, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

Altered book created by Jan Baker (1950-2018). Jan Baker was an accomplished artist and RISD Professor of Graphic Design (1981-2017) guiding students through book arts, letterpress, papermaking, bookbinding, and visual poetry in the Graphic Design department. For 37 years, she infused her classes and the campus community with the magic and meaning that comes from the handmade. Lettering, cutting, folding, binding, inventing, collecting - these were some of Jan's favorite things. Read more. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition Stacked & Altered, summer 2022.

The Paratexts Of Audience Engagement: Cover Matter That Draws In And Keeps Readers, Athena L. Edwards

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Within the book publishing industry, purchase statistics often determine a book’s success. This metric neglects crucial factors of reader engagement (i.e., reception and anticipation of current and future work) such as level of interest and appreciation. By blending key concepts from work on assemblage, ecology, reader-response, audience invoked, and media studies, this thesis attempts to (re)invigorate the discourse of book paratexts’ role in inspiring reader engagement. As a manifestation of various voices performing and contextualizing a core text for readers, paratexts are a key component to the discursive uptake of books by readers and their publics. Book covers, specifically, are …

Graphic Scotland: Visuality And Empire, 1810 – 1913, Laura Michelle Golobish

Art & Art History ETDs

Graphic Scotland: Visuality and Empire, 1810–1913 interrogates the aesthetic, technological, and literary conventions used to represent Scotland’s character in nineteenth-century publications. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, publishers, authors, and readers began to correlate the material format of prints, books, illustration, and bookbinding with individual and national character. Periodicals and literature drew the correlations between the aesthetic conventions of picturesque Scottish landscape, physiognomy of Scottish authors, and bookbinding to frame ideas about Scottish character as a didactic model for middle class British and American readers. Thus, Graphic Scotland offers an intertextual reading of three illustrated publications about Scotland–J.R. Osgood’s 1882 …

Half In Dream: The Tangle In The Grid, Abbey L. Paccia

Masters Theses

Half in Dream: The Tangle in the Grid discusses the form and content of a physical art installation by the same name. The site-specific installation is a large three-dimensional collage of natural ephemera collected from the area around Amherst, Massachusetts, which interacts with natural lighting conditions to illuminate a gallery-facing image of ever-moving light and shadow. The written work elaborates some of the many details within the structure of the artwork, and reveals the philosophies, embodied practices, and methodologies that informed the visual work's creation. Woven throughout are reflections on phenomenology, walking practice, General Systems Theory, collective making, narrative arts, …

Chez Henri Cookbook Redesign, Izzy Kelly

Graphic Communication

Chez Henri is a redesigned version of a cookbook that Bonnie Henry, my grandmother, has curated over the past 50 years. The original book was entitled “A Collection of Recipes From Friends and Family”, but I decided to rename it to “Chez Henri”, a phrase that was written on a sign outside of her home for almost 20 years. Bonnie Henry is an excellent cook and her recipes include many salads, soups, entrees, and dishes that most people don’t see everyday. Chez Henri contains photography that depicts these recipes, notes from the chef, and clear cut instructions that are easy …

The Queer Dictionary, Mia Lew

Graphic Communication

With the government continually obstructing queer education in public schools, it becomes harder and harder for queer people to understand themselves than in turn, have the tools to explain what they are going through to others. This is a problem but in turn an opportunity. While there are queer literature and children’s books out there, they typically only encompass one story or one view on queerness. Thus, this project's main goal is to encompass queerness as a whole by using as many LGBTQ+ words as possible, people's stories under each word, historical graphics, highlights on the internationality of queerness, pronoun …

For Art's Sake: An Exploration Of The Persistence Of Imposter Syndrome And Low-Self Confidence In Creative Fields, Mckinsey Carroll

University Honors Theses

Inspired by personal experiences as a graphic design student and those of my peers, this qualitative creative thesis discusses the prevalence of insecurity, imposter syndrome, and similar mental health struggles in creatives, and the ways in which these experiences or tendencies can inhibit us and stifle our creativity. Through my research, I learned that there are many ways in which graphic design as a field is uniquely affected by these issues, and that there exists a glaring need for conversation, particularly in academic spaces. This prompted the development of my personal interactive workbook titled "For Art's Sake" in which I …

Tiempo De Hibridos, Paul Acevedo Gomez

LSU Master's Theses

Tiempo De Hibridos is a body of work that celebrates the multiplicity of my shifting identity. It navigates back and forth between two different worlds, each packing different experiences that become a crossbreed or hybrid of information. Using historical references, pop culture, and personal experiences, I create a narrative story that maneuvers through familiar and foreign spaces.

The images suggest a celebration of cultural identity, vitality, but also psychological pain. I purposely combine objects that can be perceived as conflicting, altering their function to reference elements that are both playful and painful. The viewer should question the combination of objects …

A Perfect Escape: Fantasy, Place And Narrative In Adolescence, Cydney Cherepak

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, …

Meet Me In The Middle Ages: Engaging With Fantasy, Reality, And Collaborative World-Building, Amanda Greene

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay accompanies and describes my thesis project, Medievalia Miscellany, a magazine for middle-grade readers which explores the world of medieval fantasy through art, comics, stories, and activities. Throughout the essay, I use my own term “archaeological upcycling” to discuss and explore a variety of relationships between ideas of parts and a whole. I then use it to characterize the way stories are created out of many different parts and how these parts help a reader to relate to both the world of the story and the world in which they live. I describe the genre of medieval fantasy …

Cultural Formation Of Place: Making Yourself At Home, Olivia Arratia

Art Theses and Dissertations

The environment you grow up in can become a pivotal part of your existence. The sights, smells, people, and places you experience every day can transform the way you see the world. Growing up in a Mexican-American household has brought its own set of experiences that have made me the artist I am today. I am one of many contemporary artists building on the foundations of their heritage and the Chicano movement. I am also a Mexican-American artist expanding the identity and extending the legacy in the 21st century. This paper will investigate how Mexican-American heritage has influenced my artistic …

Tigilan Mo Nga!: A Zine Utilizing The Elements Of Digital Illustration To Highlight Ocd Experience In A Filipino Household, Zia Mei C. Ocampo

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Tigilan Mo Nga! is a zine inspired by Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a Filipino household as well as the manifestation and effects of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The purpose of this zine is to further and fully understand the OCD experience. It is told from the perspective of a young Filipino with OCD. Data from two written interviews that were accomplished by an OCD patient and a BS Psychology Major were used as inspiration for illustrations in the zine. Overall, the zine includes themes of stigma, OCD in a Filipino household, and compulsions.

Bare: The Modern Female Nude Uncovered, Tasha A. Determan

Honors Thesis

My honors thesis criticizes representations of the female nude and advocates for diverse expression of the female body. The research encompasses two series of artwork and a written component examining and reflecting upon the artwork. The first series is Venus of Fruit, which assesses past depictions and associations of the female nude specifically objectification and sexualization in western art. The sculptures are four cast bronze nude figures within an apple, a banana, and a pineapple. The figures are Venuses trapped within nature, beauty, fertility, and sexualization. The second series is Venus Anew, which examines the naked and the …

Ipseity Vol. 1: An Artful Exploration Of Identity Formation In Emerging Adulthood, Lauren Alexis Taylor

Honors Theses

Ipseity is a multi-edition coffee-table style book that integrates digital and print design and incorporates handmade elements and processes such as die-cuts, letterpress printing, gold foiling, hand-sewn bindings, and embroidery. Its design is rooted in minimalism, yet the handmade aspects, eye-catching color palette, and bold illustrations make reading Ipseity a visual and tactile experience. The design utilizes typography and flat-color illustrations in a consistent layout, with a strong emphasis on the handmade elements and craftsmanship throughout the book. It is not only a publication to read and ponder, but it is an artful object with a physical presence to be …

A Story Of The Social Life Of Yulupa Cohousing, Kayla Ho

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone is a study of the lived social experience of one cohousing community. Cohousing communities are designed with the intention of fostering a community with a mixture of privately-owned units and publicly shared spaces and responsibilities. The study is conducted at a significant point in American history: these communities are a fast-growing phenomenon in the United States yet they remain unknown and/or unattainable to many Americans.

Qualitative information from the community’s current residents is gathered by using research tools of interviewing and photography. Interviews were completed virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photographs were created during a three-day visit …

Book Of Kodak, Haoxi Zhang, Special Collections, Fleet Library

9th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2023

Entry for the 9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, March 02, 2023, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Andre Lee Bassuet.

“Wall Book”, Cole Messinger, Special Collections, Fleet Library

9th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2023

Entry for the 9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, March 02, 2023, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Andre Lee Bassuet.

Grimoire Of A Lost Witch, Lily Hipp, Special Collections, Fleet Library

9th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2023

Entry for the 9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, March 02, 2023, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Andre Lee Bassuet.

Memoire De Vente, Weicheng Xu, Special Collections, Fleet Library

9th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2023

Entry for the 9th Annual Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, March 02, 2023, Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Andre Lee Bassuet.