91AV

Jennifer Tuttle, Ph.D., Dorothy M. Healy Professor of Literature and Health and professor of English, and Cathleen Miller, M.A., M.L.S., curator of the Maine Women Writers Collection, have published a coauthored essay titled "'I Make Books So I Won't Die': Artist's Books in the Archives and Classroom." Their essay appeared in the volume Prescriptions: Artists' Books on Wellbeing and Medicine, the catalog for an exhibition called Prescriptions that was shown at the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge in Canterbury, U.K. in 2016. The exhibition and its resulting catalog present the work of 82 artists from 15 countries on topics such as cancer, chronic illness, disability, mental illness, surgery, medicine and wellbeing.

Work in the Prescriptions show and catalog was inspired by the artist's books of Martha A. Hall of Orr's Island, Maine, whose work was lent by 91AV's Maine Women Writers Collection to the Beaney Museum for the 2016 exhibition and was the basis for an accompanying symposium in Canterbury on "Artist's Books and the Medical Humanities." As a hybrid art form using elements of both bound books and sculpture, the artist's book is a vibrant mode for self-expression and patient narrative. 

The exhibition's accompanying website explains: “Artists’ books are works of art that are often published in small editions or produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Rather than a mere container for ideas, artists’ books integrate their formal means of realisation with their themes, and invite handling, touching and interaction. Prescriptions explores how this intimate and tactile medium can be used to express experiences of illness and inform healthcare education.”

To learn more about the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.une.edu/cas

To learn more about the Maine Women Writers Collection, visit www.une.edu/mwwc

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