A sculptural book installation by Sondra Graff, adjunct associate professor of Communication Design Pathways, titled traversingwithonions | or in pursuit of the butter chair and other encounters … is on view at the Center for Book Arts. The exhibition was developed during her time at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in conversation with Matthew Monk, Silas Munro, Natalia Ilyin, and Yoon Soo Lee.
From the exhibition description:
What is a book? Is narrative contingent on physical structure? How does one enter, peruse, or give pause? traversingwithonions | or in pursuit of the butter chair and other encounters… was based on the analogy of the Japanese choreographer Poppo Shiraishi. “Your back is your front,” a meditation, a harkening that questions orientation – one’s interior, one’s exterior. The suspended books can be experienced from the fore edge, opened or “traversed” in multiple ways. The layers form an improvisatory landscape. The eggs vulnerable, balance elusive—an absurd juxtaposition, that can ultimately be experienced viscerally in non-sequential form.
Graff’s installation is on view through Feb. 14. The Center for Book Arts is located at 28 W. 27th St., third floor, in Manhattan. The gallery is open Monday–Saturday, 11 am–4 pm, but due to the pandemic, you must book an appointment to visit at (212) 481-0295.
For more information, contact Graff.