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Shu-Ju Wang
Portland, Oregon
Esther
A collaborative project between Shu-Ju Wang and Esther Cohen, a dedicated mah-jongg player suffering from memory loss, this was a walk down memory lane
for Esther and her daughter when her daughter dug up a treasure trove of family documents and photographs as source materials for this book. In an edition
of twenty, Esther is a chronicle of Esther’s life story with a winning mah-jongg hand represented on the backside, the game being the constant throughout
the many changes of her life. Print Gocco on Rives Lightweight, Rives BFK, ribbon, bone tiles. 6 x 4 x 0.5 inches, 15 x 10 x 1.5 centimeters. Created 2008.
Born and raised in Taiwan, Shu-Ju Wang settled in Oregon after stays in Saudi Arabia, California, and New Jersey. Trained as an engineer, she started
taking classes at the Oregon College of Art & Craft (then the Oregon School of Arts & Crafts) and had her first solo exhibit at the school’s Centrum Gallery in
1996. In 2000 she left the high-tech industry to become a full-time studio artist working in painting, printmaking, and artists’ books. With one foot firmly
rooted in the Pacific Northwest and the other in the artistic traditions of East and Central Asia and the Middle East, Shu-Ju paints a portrait of her sometimes
wonderful, sometimes unsettling, first-generation American life. Website at www.fingerstothebone.com
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