Some people prefer to read books; Others prefer to play with them. The conversion of reading material into beautiful, sometimes bizarre objects is the topic of a captivating exhibition on SONOMA Valley Museum of Art, “Book become art.”
The show runs until April 27 and presents around 40 handmade books by contemporary artists who work in Japanese aesthetics. (Many actually come from Japan.) There is Yohei Nishimura, who’s subject to his materials of utmost heat to disclose hidden properties. Here he offers a version of Webster's third recent international dictionary that appears prefer it was from the fireplace of hell. Veronika Schäpers gives her books with the essence of the Japanese Street Food; Kyoko Matsunaga paints photos within the white pigment to offer a sense of awe and rebirth. And Hiroko Fukumoto converted a paperback right into a living mushroom farm.
The chairman of the exhibition (within the truest sense of the word) is Maki aizawa's free “book” made from mulberry paper, that are housed by 35 women of their hometown, a devastating earthquake and tsunami. You may not have the ability to read it in the normal sense, but volumes talk in regards to the human condition.
Details: From Wednesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to five p.m. on 551 Broadway, Sonoma; $ 10 general admission (freed from charge on Wednesday), svma.org/vissit/
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