Nancy Wallace

One of my first memories as a child is my mother sharing with me stories from children's picture books. I can still shut my eyes and visualize many of the illustrations and hear my mother's lyrical voice relating tales of adventure and fantasy. I have always thought these stories and illustrations are a reason I became an artist, an avid reader, and lover of books. When I was old enough to decide on a career, I majored in fine art, with painting and sculpture as my emphasis. After college I dabbled with painting and drawing while teaching elementary art and being a mother to my only child. Post active motherhood, with personal time to devote to the pursuit of art, I choose to work with clay and paper to produce one of a kind books. When I traveled to Europe and for the first time saw medieval manuscripts, I was mesmerized. The text was hand written with beautiful calligraphic script. Pages were illuminated with small colorful, hand-painted illustrations embellished with liquid gold. Every book was a precious work of art that had taken its maker six months to a year to produce. This was a time when books were considered so valuable that they were often chained to library shelves. Although books today are mass-produced by machines and are easily obtained, my books are small pieces of sculpture. Blank, they invite the collector to take part in the final artistic production by adding his personal mark to the book's heart. I use a variety of materials in the book production. The covers begin as a piece of blank wood. On these wooden slabs I add hand made tiles, carvings, veneers, natural or man-made found objects to create a mood or narrative. The cover of the book often visually continues to the inside. End sheets are hand made papers, and the signatures are constructed from paper that is suitable for journaling, drawing, or photographs. I use open spine Coptic bindings developed many centuries ago. Coptic bindings both enhance the beauty of books while providing a tough network of threads that hold the book securely together. By using these traditional bindings in a traditional book form, I am following in the path of those scribes from the past that took the time to create a treasured and lasting work of art.

Nancy