BookEnds: The Book as Art

Exhibition Dates:
Target Gallery: January 22 – February 22
Reception: Second Thursday Art Night; February 12, 6-8pm; Juror, Helen Frederick, talk at 7pm
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Exhibition Dates: Pyramid Atlantic Art Center- February 10 – April 18; reception on Saturday, February 14





Two DC area art centers are “Bookending” the DC art scene; Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery in Alexandria, VA and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, MD.

From late January through April, Torpedo Factory Art Center and Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring are coming together for an interesting collaborative exhibition, “BookEnds: the Book as Art”. This juried exhibition focuses on the book as art and includes artists both nationally and internationally. The exhibition will be split between two venues, Torpedo Factory Art Center’s Target Gallery and Pyramid Atlantic: A Center for Print, Paper and Book Arts. The juror for this exhibition is Helen Frederick, Founder and former director of Pyramid Atlantic. Frederick chose 56 pieces that will be on display at both galleries. The work encompasses more traditional forms of art books and more contemporary and sculptural versions as well. The juror will present a gallery talk on February 12 at 7pm during the reception.

Excerpt from Helen Frederick’s juror statement:

The artist books in this exhibition equally represent forms of letterpress, etching, relief printing, screenprint, lithography and digital printing. This fact acknowledges the spirited community of individuals who employ the book arts as a medium based on print technologies, and it also demonstrates the health of available artist books programs in academia, public, private and non-profit art centers. Exhibited artists are no doubt a mix of mentors and students who sustain and advance the book arts movement.

In the area of mixed media, some very delightful constructs were employed, from glass to collage to magazine pages, all useful in rendering text and image in deconstructed and reconstructed manner of ways. And although we think of a book as hand-sized, in this exhibition you will find numerous and various senses of scale that extend the hand. As Marshall McLuhan says “we make our tools and in turn our tools make us”.

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The Target Gallery is located on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria, VA. The gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday 12-6pm and Thursdays 12-8pm. The entire exhibition will be online at www.torpedofactory.org/galleries/target_current.htm by January 22. The gallery’s mission is to promote high standards of art by continuously exploring new ideas through the visual media in a schedule of national and international exhibitions.

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit contemporary arts center located in the Arts & Entertainment District in downtown Silver Spring. Pyramid’s mission is to promote and nurture artistic excellence through imaginative programming in the visual arts for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. For more information, visit www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org.