MIRROR.
- Freeville, NY: Carol Schwartzott, 1999.
- small square 8vo
- Sections of folded pages, stitched into an accordion-folded concertina binding. Pages are a combination of mylar, Chirogami, paste and Japanese papers. Cover of silver mat board with is gocco printed in silver. Drop-back box with mirror in bottom.
- unpaginated
Price: $2,000.00 other currencies
Order Nr. 141950
Private printed, illustrated, and bound in an edition of only 6 numbered copies signed by the artist, Carol Schwartzott. A fine copy in a near fine clamshell box.
"Mirror began as a book to be donated at a benefit auction for the Ithaca School of Art and Music, its theme being "Mirrors". I began working and what instantly came to mind was Alice Through The Looking Glass and Snow White. I started reversing the images and had this idea of using mylar. Originally I wanted to cut away some of the pages, but soon realized that they were too fragile. As the work progressed I kept fingering my beautiful Japanse papers and thinking that they needed to be part of this book. Gradually, Alice and Snow White disappeared and my "Geisha" took their place. By painting over the image I could achieve a transparency of sorts... also, as the mylar was turned the page reflected onto its surface.
Developing this book within the Japanese theme also made it want to be simple and understated... presenting to the viewer "a reflection" of beauty using the Japanese print."
The images used in the book are Japanese Wood Cuts of the great masters of color, space, and shape: Chokosa Eisho (1793-1799), Eishosai Choki (1780-1800), and Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806).
Carol Schwartzott: "A book for me is like a journey; along the way the road twists and turns, and sometimes I get lost, but my aim is to arrive at my destination and enjoy the trip along the way. Curiosity, investigation, observation, objects, words or images, intuition, connections and creative application accompany me on my journey. Processes are part of the reason I choose to make books. I love the processes involved in researching, writing, designing, drawing, painting, printing, constructing and binding. Very often, one idea will lead to another, ... My books are assemblages of thoughts, much like the collages I make, layering pieces of fact and fancy, bits of memory, objects mixed and matched, all added (and sometimes subtracted) to explore a theme. It becomes an adventure in searching for connections."