Pieced Together
10 pages 6.25″ x 4.75″ each, Tin box 6.25″ x 4.75″ x 2.25″ A concertina book with collaged paper quilt blocks and text from early documents on Arches black cover pages which have been pierced. Made in Lancaster, PA .
Lamentations
6.75″ x 6″ closed, 6.75″ x 12″ open, edition of 20 See work related to this book, the series Body + Soul.
Vengeance is Mine
4.5″ x 4.5″ closed 4.5″ x 45″ open, variant edition of 20 This book is part of the series, body + soul, which began with photographs of twin performance artists, Emily and Abigail Taylor. The text, “conceived in deception, precious cargo, stalked by hate, sacrificed to a vengeful god”, refers to mothers whose children are sacrificed. Inkjet prints, collaged on Epson paper. The cover is lead, both beautiful and dangerous, with a metal lily referencing life. See work related to this book, the series Body + Soul.
OneLife
5.75″ x 4.5″ x 1″ Glass photographic plate on cloth keyhole binding, paper, collage This book contains documents relating to the life of James Ward of Longmeadow, Massachusetts around the turn of the century.
Jerusalem
4 .5″ x 4.5″ closed, 4.5″ x 27″ open Concertina “pop-up” book, cloth, paper, wood, enamel, red vellum.
Magdalene Laundries
6″ x 4.25″ x 1.25″ Leather Coptic binding over papyrus. Collage. In 1993 when property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin was to be sold, unmarked graves of 133 women were discovered. The shameful history of the Magdalene laundries can be found on the web and in the excellent movie by Peter Mullan, The Magdalene Sisters. I saw the movie in Ireland in the fall of 2002 and began this book shortly after. In reviewing the “Conceptually Bound” exhibit in ARTSHIFT San Jose, Julia Bradshaw says: At a smaller scale, but never-the-less similarly powerful, Dorothy Simpson Krause used a small news item and a film as the spark for her project. A small dense book bound using a black leather Coptic binding with red leather accents, hand-sewn headbands and papyrus pages treated with a variety of collage and drawing methods, Krause has created a precious item that at first sight appears to be a hymnal or a bible. Krause’s book ‘Magdalene Laundries’ was inspired by her learning that “in 1993 when property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin was to be sold, unmarked graves of 133 women were found.” Each page of this thick, intense book is hand-inscribed or hand-printed with text or facts or makes use of found photographs to express the poignant histories of some of the girls who were imprisoned against their will. In its entirety, the book feels like a prayer to the God of Never-Again.
Guardians
5″ x 6.25″ x 2.25″ Wood and metal box containing concertina book with metal figures. Made in India. Also related to this trip are three series of work, Passages and Reflective Visions, and the books law and custom , many truths and India.
Mind Body
20″ x 15″ x 1″ Revised Stanford-Benet Scales box with artist book made from a 6th Grade Physiology notebook. Collage materials include metal, leather, polymer clay and a bottle which contained hydrozone, a controversial medical treatment for mind and body.
MonkeyGrip
4.5” x 16.5” in box 4.5” x 2” x 2” Year-of-the-monkey laser cutouts were glued onto separate sheets of oriental joss paper then pasted to a continuous backing and housed in a cylindrical Monkey Grip tire-patch can.
Weaver
7” x 5.75” Single fold collaged book, containing a vintage wood cut-out of Mahatma Gandhi and world leaders with hand-woven cloth cover. Made in India.