Jill Krase
Winona, Minnesota

Jill Krase is a bookbinder in private practice in Winona, Minnesota, where she also teaches binding workshops for kids and adults. She studied at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She has an MA in English from Illinois State University.

The Good and Terrible Mother

The Good and Terrible Mother explores the collective, mythic idea of "mother" as a two-dimensional figure, a notion that is amplified by the dos-a-dos structure of the book. The good aspect reflects, according to C.G. Jung, "all that is benign, all that cherishes and sustains, furthers growth and fertility." The negative aspect "connotes what devours, seduces, and poisons." When unfolded, the accordion panels showcase graphite drawings by the binder of archetypal representations of mother, including the vessel-shaped lotus (both flowering and gone to seed), a cooking vessel, and our final vessel, the grave. The text is two chapters from Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious. The first addresses the good mother, and the second examines the terrible. Accordion pages and covers bear stamped Chinese inspired characters representing "good" and "terrible." The top edge is graphite.
Vellum, graphite, handmade paper, board, black thread, hand-carved stamps, red seal paste.
4.25 x 6 x 1.5 inches; 10 x 15 x 4 centimeters. Created 2015.