SOUTH POMFRET — Among the writers involved with this year’s Bookstock, the name of Ilia Erenburg is not prominent.
Ehrenburg (as his name is more commonly transliterated) was a Soviet Jewish writer who lived from 1891 to 1967. He is present at Bookstock thanks to the staying power of books and the imaginative power of visual art.
For “A Thin Veil,” a piece in “Unbound vol. XIV,” a yearly exhibition of book art at Artistree Gallery, the Providence, R.I., artist Andre Lee Bassuet took apart a copy, printed in Russian, of Ehrenburg’s “Sobranie sochinenii,” or “Collected Works,” and fashioned pages from it into a shawl.
It’s one of the standout works in a show that deserves attention. Bookstock celebrates books and writers, but “Unbound,” which has accompanied the Woodstock literary festival from the beginning, shows us how deeply the foundations of our thinking are embedded in printed language.
The patchwork pages of “A Thin Veil” seem to warn us not to expect warmth from Ehrenburg’s nine-volume collection. A contemporary of other great Soviet writers, including Vasily Grossman, Ehrenburg was wildly prolific, turning out at least 100 books.
The copy Bassuet used still bears its barcode from the Providence Public Library. It’s hard to imagine many readers checking it out, but the pages look worn and yellowed.
Next to it stands “Women in the Field,” which takes its title from a book by Marcia Myers Bonta that’s subtitled “America’s Pioneering Women Naturalists.” Bassuet has taken pages from the book, another library discard, and used the cyanotype process to imprint images of ferns and flowers on them, then assembled them into a Victorian cloak, high-collared and clasped at the throat. It’s a beautiful homage to the women in the book, and to its author, who’s 85 and living in central Pennsylvania.
Given the times we’re in, it wasn’t surprising to see a fair amount of work in Unbound that expressed social messages. Art about or containing words seems a natural place for messaging.
Quechee artist Carole McNamee’s “The Dot Community,” an accordion book, takes its premise from the poem “First They Came,” by Pastor Martin Niemoller. That’s the one that goes, “First they came for the communists, but I did not speak out, because I was not a communist,” and so on, until they get to the narrator, “and there was no one left to speak out for me.” Colored dots substitute for people in McNamee’s book.
The most striking works were those that treated words as part of the action. Maine artist Larry Clifford makes what he calls “book quilts,” geometric patterns made from old books. In “Vermont Christmas,” displayed as two square frames, pieces cut from red and green book covers are arranged with typeset pages spattered with red or green paint. The images look a bit like game boards, but the cut up patches recall how we see fragments of language in the landscape as we’re moving past it in a car or a train. The mix of formal design and whirly movement sets up a vivid counterpoint.
Nearby hang three pieces by Burlington artist Dorsey Hogg, who takes old books and reworks them into complex folded shapes. The three works in Unbound, titled “Spirits of Discarded Books,” look like chandeliers, with pages cut and folded into stars, globes and other wondrous shapes.
“ROLODEX,” by Massachusetts artist Cristina Elizabeth Hajosy, plays on the old desk reference tool. Colorful paper is interleaved with pieces of ledger paper and what looks like time cards, all of which is affixed to an orange cloth belt. The threads connecting it all are left long and woolly, emphasizing connection, which is what a Rolodex is all about.
Woodstock artist Judith Taylor wrote quotations from great writers and thinkers on leaves and piled them up for “MUCH TO BE DESIRED,” one of a surprising number of titles in the show written with the caps lock on. While many of the pieces in the show can be picked up and have their pages turned, this one says not to touch. There’s plenty to read anyway. “everything that is masks for us something that might be,” if Paul Valery is to be believed.
Taylor was not the only artist to work from a straightforward conceit. “Birds I Like,” by White River Junction artist Katherine Rawson, is a simple folded book with bright images of six common birds, rendered in cut out paper, on each page. It raises the question, though, of what the implied artist thinks of all the many other birds out there. What’s not to like?
The longevity of Unbound has made it a destination show for book artists, Deborah Goodwin, who manages Artistree Gallery, said. Vermont and New England both have book arts guilds, which brings in artists from around the region. (Goodwin, a Stockbridge, Vt., resident, has a piece in the show: “The Roarin’ 2020s” consists of Wall Street Journal and Financial Times pages fringed and sewn onto a thrifted slip dress, flapper style.)
Bookstock is pretty much all about contemporary writers and writing, but the book’s arc is long, and “Unbound vol. XIV” gives us a feel for the place of the printed page. You might be reading this on a phone or tablet, but ink on paper is still all around you, more plentiful than pixels, and more durable.
“Unbound vol. XIV” is on view through May 23 at Artistree Gallery in South Pomfret.
Bookstock proper
The Friday evening kick-off party for Bookstock takes place at Artistree, too, but if you haven’t got a ticket already you’re probably out of luck. All of Friday’s Bookstock events are sold out, though that’s a bit of a misnomer, since nearly all of the events are free. You do need to go to the festival’s website and get a ticket for events you’d like to attend. It will still be possible to get into some events, particularly in larger venues such as Town Hall Theatre, by presenting yourself at the check-in desk before the event starts, but the ticket is a guarantee.
There are still some open spots on the festival’s schedule. Journalist Garrett Graff, who grew up in Vermont and is the author of 10 books, including a new history of Watergate, speaks at 10 a.m. Saturday in Woodstock’s Town Hall Theatre.
Also on Saturday, at noon, in Norman Williams Public Library, author Kitta MacPherson will lead a writing workshop for teens.
And at 10 on Sunday morning, Newbury, Vt., resident and former Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea will be among three poets reading from their work, also at Norman Williams Public Library.
For a full listing of Bookstock events, go to bookstockvt.org. Click on the “Get Tickets” button to see which events are still available.
Not your mom’s silent auction
Kelsandrea Hogue, better known as Sir Babygirl, is throwing a party Saturday night from 7:30 on at The Filling Station in White River Junction to raise money for “Body of Work,” a new play by Rigel Harris, a Lebanon High School graduate who’s gone to a busy career in theater. A “sexy silent auction” is in the works, and Sir Babygirl will play a DJ set. Harris’ play is slated for production in June at the Briggs Opera House.
Not Bookstock
The Ottauquechee Yacht Club, in Woodstock, hosts The Freeze Brothers, a rock trio in the Vermont jam-band tradition, starting at 6:30 Saturday night.
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