Karen Hanmer
Glenview, Illinois

Karen Hanmer's intimate, playful works fragment and layer text and image to intertwine personal and cultural memory. Her work weds the ancient act of bookbinding with the high-tech use of the computer to aid her process. She exhibits widely, and her work is included in collections ranging from Stanford University and Tate Britain to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, and Graceland. Hanmer holds a degree in economics from Northwestern University and has studied binding with Priscilla Spitler, Don Etherington, Scott Kellar, and Monique Lallier, She curated the 2006-9 traveling exhibition Marking Time for the Guild of Book Workers and served on the editorial board of The Bonefolder: an e-journal for the bookbinder and book artist. She offers workshops and private instruction focusing on a solid foundation in basic binding skills.

Website: karenhanmer.com

Horizons… Capri, 2011

The painting that hung over the bookmaker's childhood sofa; photographed, digitally printed actual size, deconstructed, and bound using the drum leaf structure. When this view of the island of Capri overlooking the Gulf of Naples is divided into eight equal portions, each portion still reads as a horizon. A fragmented walk through the landscape may also function as metaphor for memory, and for the unanswered questions that elude memory.

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8 x 0.5 inches, 14 x 20.5 x 1.5 centimeters

Pigment inkjet prints, gold-stamped vellum spine.