Book and Paper Commons^™

A Presence Of P____ And W__Th, Riley Wilson

Masters Theses

This body of work examines the involvement of association as it relates to our cultural interpretations of natural phenomena. Flowers and animals, both real and imagined, have been used as symbols for human morality since the beginning of human history. Two sources with which I drew inspiration from are medieval bestiaries and the Victorian practice of flower language. By combining elements from these references, I aim to pair this idea about the human need for classification with my own considerations about my identity. In combination, I also aim to highlight the responsibility that is intrinsic to curiosity. When faced with …

Soul Furnace / فرن الأرواح, Isa Ghanayem

Masters Theses

“This is the good washing, this is (the washing) which separates the dirty body from the pure body. This is like silver mixed with lead, it is separated from it by this (process): one makes for it a cupel of bones, which is what is called the “head of the dog” and of which the common name is kūja-which is the crucible—and this must be made of burnt bones. One melts the silver in it, one gives it a strong fire: the cupel will absorb and receive the lead, the fire will make its subtle (part) fly away and extirpate …

Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer

Masters Theses

This is an artist talk contained within a book. It is 816 pages and 49 minutes long. Closed captions run across the spreads. A video of this talk can be watched on bendenzer.com/making-then-meaning

At RISD, I’ve been prompted to expand the scope and tools of my practice and to reflect on questions of meaning in my work.

I spend my days making things, but I’ve never really had good answers to questions of why I make the things I make, or what their meaning is. I don’t think there are simple answers to these questions.

I think meaning comes from …

Bloody Show, Leonie Weber

Theses and Dissertations

Leonie Weber reflects on how reproductive, domestic, and emotional labor is addressed in her artwork, and her experience as an artist-parent in the art world. Moreover, she specifically discusses mothers who are navigating their own artistic paths. Her practice encompasses sculpture, printmaking, performance, and installation.

Imprints: The Marks We Make, Patricia Botts

Graduate Theses

When walking throughout a cemetery, you may notice the small dash on a tombstone between the year of someone’s birth and their death. Have you ever given thought as to how a tiny line can represent so much? Even a small mark, such as the dash, can represent volumes in the entirety of a person’s life and the imprint they leave on those around them. In my work, I use various types of line as symbols associated with representations of life. I am most interested in lines as visual representation of physical and psychological wounds, both newly created and those …

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 …

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 …

Quilted Archives, Rebecca M. Gallandt

Art and Art History Honors Projects

Memory and identity are rooted in the experience of being in material spaces and the process of remembering is often prompted by associative places. Quilted Archives is a series of four collages that combine the mediums of printmaking and oil painting in the pursuit of exploring nostalgia. In each work I use brightly colored intaglio aquatint prints, sepia intaglio etchings, patterned linocut prints, and oil paint to embed memories of childhood play and pretend in the flora of the landscapes where each memory takes place. The flora is collaged in a colorful geometric style to reference quilting and is used …

The Ghosts Shed Tears, Sarah Jentsch

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Before I was taught what made us different, I thought my brother and I were the same. The only difference between a doe and a buck was the antlers. As I grew, I noticed differences—in the way people spoke to us, in what was expected of us, in the questions we were asked. In what our futures were supposed to look like. The difference between the doe and the buck was still the antlers, but those antlers made one a trophy and the other venison.

Many of my formative experiences I came to understand through animals. My family home, cradled …

The World As We Know It: Maps And Atlases From Special Collections, Archives And Special Collections, Luke Meagher

Library Exhibits

Selections of maps and atlases from Sandor Teszler Library’s Special Collections are presented in this exhibit to show how, over time, cartographers have represented the world as we know it.

Water Bearer, Whitney Harris

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores fantasy and mythological archetypes. The exhibition features works on paper depicting mermaids, and a fountain featuring two figures submerged in water, one spitting into the other's mouth. I use black ink and glazes to create variegated surfaces. In these works, I reimagine ideas about power and intimacy.

The Anxiety Of Presenting Identity, Savannah Fleming

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

This work explores aspects of Queer identity, historical reflection, and acceptance through painting, printmaking, and collage. Savannah Fleming's artwork intends to reclaim art history and alter it to include those excluded from its canon. Through the use of prints, paint, and collage, they create works that address the bias of art history, while tackling contemporary problems of identity and acceptance. References and alterations to art history are her way of addressing the erasure of Queer and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) from the art historical canon, while battling with modern-day confines on individuality.

Hello Again يا اهلا A Study Of Grief, Diana Abouchacra

LSU Master's Theses

Grief is an unwanted visitor who we all come to know throughout our lifetime. Although every person reacts differently to bereavement of a loved one, almost always the lost other becomes etched into our being for the remainder of our lives (McClocklin & Lengelle, 2017). In today’s society, we are encouraged to say “Good-bye”, but what if instead, we allow ourselves to keep those who have passed on close to our hearts and say hello again? Hello Again يا اهلا is a body of work that explores my experience with grief. The artworks made for this exhibition investigate my process …

Weather Permitting, Acadia Kandora

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Weather Permitting is an exhibition of objects and printed matter, primarily in the form of publicationsthat examine my relationship to nature and the idea of nature as both sanctuary and armor. At a young age, my parents would take my on a hike every Sunday instead of going to church. The hikes acted as a weekly pilgrimage deep into the woods and a ritual instilling the idea of nature being a place of spiritual refuge and retreat. A sanctuary - of course, weather permitting.

As I grew up and experienced hardship, my first instinct has always been to go hide …

The Infinite Crisis: How The American Comic Book Has Been Shaped By War, Winston Andrus

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominating nearly every popular art form. Yet, the academic world has often ignored the comic book medium as a niche market instead of integrated into the broader discussions on cultural production and conflict studies. This paper intends to bridge the gap between what has been classified as comic book studies and the greater academic world to demonstrate the …

Typemaking, Rebekah Sorensen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this project is an exploration of typemaking—an analysis including the development of letterforms to the various methods in printing these forms, including the rich history behind these developments—which ultimately results in the form of communication known as graphic design. Research begins with the history of print processes and evolving typographic styles, providing a comprehensive understanding of how typography has been applied as a means of communication, and the benefits to society throughout time. The information is then applied through the digital design of letterpress type, followed by the physical production of these pieces using a range of …

The Hertzog Collection, Claudia A. Rivers

Presentations & Slide Shows

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas

No abstract provided.

Mexico And The People: Revolutionary Printmaking And The Taller De Gráfica Popular, Carolyn Hauk, Joy Zanghi

Schmucker Art Catalogs

During its most turbulent and formative years of the twentieth century, Mexico witnessed decades of political frustration, a major revolution, and two World Wars. By the late 1900s, it emerged as a modernized nation, thrust into an ever-growing global sphere. The revolutionary voices of Mexico’s people that echoed through time took root in the arts and emerged as a collective force to bring about a new self-awareness and change for their nation. Mexico’s most distinguished artists set out to challenge an overpowered government, propagate social-political advancement, and reimagine a stronger, unified national identity. Following in the footsteps of political printmaker …

In The Garden, Clare Samani

LSU Master's Theses

My work has focused largely on identity and self-expression, primarily through clothing, pattern, and color as a symbolic content. Having heavily investigated historical costume and clothing from various periods, my attention is drawn to the highly sculptural and ornamented garments of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the rococo, and the baroque. In these colorful and puffed garments, I am attracted to the similarities that I see in nature. How we adorn ourselves mimics various flowers, plants and animals in the pursuit of desire and procreation. Focusing on fabric manipulation, printmaking and sculpture, In the Garden coalesces into ambiguous sculptures that …

Being In The Place Of Possibility, Laura Domencic

MFA in Visual Arts Theses

This paper explores my art practice as a phenomenological search for understanding how to be in the world. It begins with a description of my practice as a way to access the place of possibility that exists between faith and doubt. I examine materiality in art making to encourage consideration of both the physical and temporal nature of experience and to find balance with the increasingly incorporeal experience of the digital world. I discuss the materials and processes of drawing, sewing, and printmaking within their historical contexts. This paper connects my practice with artists who consider the act of perception …

The Adventures Of Crazy Space Pigeon And Catowl, Kati Silveria

2020 Symposium Creative Works

I have been fascinated by the processes of traditional hand printmaking techniques. (Relief, Lithography, Collagraph and Etching). Comics have also been a passion of mine for over ten years. I wanted to combine these two passions, comics and printmaking, into one work of art. It is a joy to create worlds and stories that people can dive into, engage with, and enjoy. My current project, The Adventures of Crazy Space Pigeon and Catowl, is aimed at creating one such world. The three stories in the book follow my two characters and their imaginary adventures. The book platform is created using …

Art Of Darkness, Sarah Roper

Honors Theses

This paper describes the process, production, and explanation of Art of Darkness, an artistic expression of the struggle with anxiety. All of the work is inspired by literature and art from the English Romantic and Victorian eras, and focuses on quotes about the mind, emotions, and other thought processes. As each piece highlights a different aspect of anxiety, it also portrays the struggles of anxiety through color palette, printing process, and symbolism. These printed pieces consist of letter-press printed materials, with ink-wiped backgrounds and hand-stitched details. Also included are large-scale prints with silkscreened foregrounds, a selection of bookmarks, a …

Alternative Processes In Photography, Maria Politarhos

Open Educational Resources

Course Description:

This class introduces students to unconventional photographic processes. Students will explore historic methods and materials that allow the extension of photographic imagery beyond the standard black and white or color print. The class will experiment with handmade emulsions and papers, incorporating photographic imagery into new and varied contexts such as drawings, paintings, and made books.

Addie Best Studio, Addie Best

UNBOUND 2020 Archive (Virtual)

I am currently a student at RISD but I also run a small business selling prints and mending clothes. My work is primarily linocuts and letterpress with strong themes of sustainability and tradition with a healthy dose of whimsy. - Addie Best www.addiebeststudio.com, addiebeststudio instagram

Sara Inácio, Sarah Inácio

UNBOUND 2020 Archive (Virtual)

Sara Inacio is a printmaker and socially engaged artist based in Providence, RI. Born in Ipatinga, Brazil, Sara immigrated to the United States at the age of 9. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in printmaking with a public engagement minor from Maine College of Art in 2017. Sara has shown her work in various exhibitions and events in Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York. She has participated in both international and national artist residencies including Art Farm in Marquette, Nebraska, and Green Olive Arts in Tetouan, Morocco. www.sarahinacio.com

Through her work Sara uses primarily animal imagery to …

Japanese Paper And Paper Conservation, Kei Takahashi

Honor’s College Freeman Research Journal

Washi is a Japanese handmade paper which has very long traditions. There are many types of washi in Japan but there are three main types of paper which are the kozo, mitsumata, and gampi paper. Kozo paper is made of mulberry fibers and the most well-known and has the highest production in Japan. Mitsumata and Gampi paper are made of tree of daphne fibers but the process of these two papers are different and Gampi paper is the highest quality of paper compared to the other two types papers. Before washi was created, the handmade paper originally came from …

An Uncertain Line: Making Art About Photographs Of American War And Violence., Cassidy Meurer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Photography’s power in capturing a moment in history is indisputable, but inevitably flawed. Assumptions of objectivity and truth are made that do not count for the bias of the photographer, or the bias of the viewer. These assumptions do not explain the warped effect of freezing life at a fraction of a second. Information is left outside the frame; stories are fragmented in their retelling. Certain historical photographs have become iconic over time. My interest lies in images of American battle, violence, and trauma; those that have political and propagandic weight. Coded, controversial, and inherently emotional, these photographs have become …

Adleta Type Shop And Bindery Masterlist, Megan Mccormick

Letterpress and Bookmaking

Over 300 typefaces, including

Caslon, Garamond, Goudy, Palatino, Bookman, Century Schoolbook, Cheltenham, Bodoni, Stymie, 20th Century, Gothic, Spartan, etc.

Typeface designers include

William Caslon I; American Type Founders and William Caslon I; Claude Garamond; Frederic Goudy; Morris Fuller Benton; Hermann Zapf; American Type Founders; Linn Boyd and Morris Fuller Benton; Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue; Ingalls Kimball; Joseph W. Phinney; Giambattista Bodoni; Freeman Claw; Barnhart Brothers & Spindler; Sol Hess; Lucian Bernhard; Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann; Walter Huxley; Warren Chappell; Adrian Frutiger; Peter Dom; Tommy Thompson; Robert E. Smith; Max R. Kaufmann; William T. Sniffi

Foundries include

American Type Foundry; Barnhart …

The Importance Of Frankfurt Printing Before 1550. Sebald Beham Moves From Nuremberg To Frankfurt, Alison Stewart

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

Five hundred years ago, Sebald Beham had reasons enough to leave Nuremberg and more than enough reasons to move to Frankfurt. That town's attraction as a printing center became one of the factors that resulted in Beham's settling permanently in the city on the Main in 1531, leaving behind his home town of Nuremberg, best known as the artistic center of the Renaissance master Albrecht Durer. Despite the high regard the Franconian town and Durer received, the authorities there did not treat other painters in Durer's circle particularlywell. The dubbing of Beham as 'godless painter' in 1525 constituted one of …