An accordion book hand-bound by artist Valerie Duncan. The book may be viewed as a traditional book or as a freestanding sculpture. The pages were letterpress printed by the artist at Maine Media Workshops and College on their Vandercook Universal I Press. The pages of the accordion book are printed on Rives BFK grey paper, printed with a custom mixed blue/gray ink. The smaller book is hand sewn by the artist and printed with the same inks as the accordion on Japanese Bunkoshi paper.
Each book contains original photographs taken by the artist and printed by Master Printer, Jim Nickelson @ Nickelson Editions Fine Art Digital Printmaking in Camden, Maine. The images were printed on Hahnemühle Book and Album paper and their German Etching and on Japanese Asuka paper. The original prints are tipped in with archival adhesive.
The book is housed in a custom clamshell box designed by the artist and covered in Canapetta bookcloth and constructed by Richard Reitz Smith of Camden, Maine
The cover of the accordion book is an original photograph under a Mica composite
Price: This is an editions of 10
Editions 1-5 $2,500. Editions 6-10 $4,000. 2 Artist’s proofs price TBD
Each book is handmade and hand numbered, signed by the artist, Valerie Duncan of North Potomac, Maryland.
The Cottage is an unassuming Depression era family refuge on the Potomac River that grabbed me with its spiritualistic quality. This family retreat is an organic, breathing sanctuary where five generations’ lives have been changed. This is a story of a patriarch and family.
The floorboards, the cockeyed screens and the unchanged timeworn furniture ooze with soul. At night while sleeping on the crooked porch you can hear the river’s waves whisper it’s history.
It’s crooked frame, is no longer able to stand upright, like his weathered body, yet it remains the center of the universe where all connect. He is paradoxically a pragmatic physicist and an impassioned father. Decidedly an atheist, he can’t speak of the stars and planets in the night sky without tears streaming down his eyes as he contemplates our significance as people of this world and our insignificance as inhabitants of the Earth. It is with this man, a humble skeptic, activist, mentor, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather that the story is centered.
The cottage is his legacy. It symbolizes his belief in love and family. It is his religion.
The cottage is a metaphoric representation of an elderly couple’s love, their obsolescent commitment to marriage and their survival as individuals and as a family.
I have been documenting my conversations with my father in-law for the last three years using audio, written notes and photographs. I’ve made several books including the photographs that I have taken, as well as vintage photographs that I have collected, organic materials from the property, and words I have written based on the interviews with my father in-law as well as my observations. This process has been an extraordinary one. The allure of hand bound books combined with the compassion of the words and images creates a one of a kind piece of art.
I am obsessed with the use of mica in the cover of the books. It’s transparent beauty and natural tones complement the organic nature of this project. This edition of 10 was created while I was a Book Artist in Residence at Maine Media Workshops and College.
Crooked fingers
Standing upright, comes slowly now.
Nurtured by toughness
Brittle yet tender, deep inside
Contemplative; always questioning to make certain
Resigned to aging
This house; his legacy
His aging body entraps a boy with blonde hair
His love for the past and future tied to those with whom he shares the same blood
Memories of childhood,
ever defending his mother’s austerity and recounting his father’s tenderness
Dreaming of his progeny
Holding onto his wife with a commitment of a seasoned love