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Emily Martin
Website: emilymartin.com
Instagram: emilymartin53
Facebook: Emily Martin
BIOGRAPHY
Emily Martin teaches bookbinding and paper engineering classes at the UICB. She has been exploring the relationship between format and content for many years in her work. Martin often combines letterpress printed images and text with movable and/or sculptural book forms using a variety of traditional and experimental techniques. While earning her MFA in painting (completed in 1979) from the University of Iowa, Martin was introduced to letterpress printing and artists books. She has held artist’s residencies at the Center for Book Arts, New York City (2002); Lawrence University (2012), the Penland School of Crafts (2014), The University of Florida, Gainesville (2015); and most recently was printer in residence at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, England (2018); where she printed a small book entitled “Order of Appearance, Disorder of Disappearance”. Martin has taught many workshops across the United States, in England, and In Chile, most often at the Center for Book Arts in New York and at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She received a silver medal from the Designer Bookbinders for her book The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (2012), and her book The Tragedy of King Lear was a semi-finalist for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Artists Book award (2020). Martin’s work is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers , and is in collections world-wide including The Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Library in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.
ARTIST STATEMENT
First and foremost, I am interested in telling the viewer a story. The story might be drawn from theater, social observations, current events, sometimes all of those things in the same story. I often use humor and I nearly always include interactive elements to further draw in the viewer, to bring attention to just what story it is that I am telling. I originally trained as a painter and I started making artists books while still in graduate school in the late 1970s. I am interested in the relationship between the viewer and the book. To view a book fully it must be handled, this makes for a more connected even intimate, type of viewing. To that end, I am very careful in my printing and construction, not only to honor the crafts that I use, but to make sure my books are sturdy and can withstand being out in the world. When constructing my stories, I consider what to include and what to leave to the viewer’s imagination or prior experience. I use a variety of materials and print methods, primarily letterpress printing, to make my books, which are presented in editions of 10-100 copies. Working in multiples allows the books to be more widely distributed.
ARTIST'S WORK
Work in progress, with the working title of “Madness: Reading Hamlet in the time of Covid-19 and other plagues”. Trace mono-printing on UICB Chancery paper and additional handmade paper collage elements. View one.
Work in progress, with the working title of “Madness: Reading Hamlet in the time of Covid-19 and other plagues”. Trace mono-printing on UICB Chancery paper and additional handmade paper collage elements. View two.
Hamlet scroll, 2020, 11” x 55 feet. The complete play handwritten in pencil, with hand-painted and stamped elements on a roll of inruyu paper. View one, unrolled.
Hamlet scroll, 2020, 11” x 55 feet. The complete play handwritten in pencil, with hand-painted and stamped elements on a roll of inruyu paper. View one, rolled.
Solitude Squadron, 2020, 60 individual figures made as a daily ritual from the start of isolation for two months. Trace mono-printing on UICB Chancery paper, additional handmade paper collage elements and washi tape. View one.
Solitude Squadron #44, 2020, 11” tall. an individual figure made as a daily ritual from the start of isolation for two months. Trace mono-printing on UICB Chancery paper, additional handmade paper collage elements and washi tape. View two.
Solitude Squadron #58, 2020, 10 ½“ tall. An individual figure made as a daily ritual from the start of isolation for two months. Trace mono-printing on UICB Chancery paper, additional handmade paper collage elements, and washi tape. View three.
Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, 2020, 13" x 9 ¼”. A set of five volvelles portraying five faces of Oscar Wilde backing five faces of characters from Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. The inner wheels turn to allow the reading of lines from the play and other of Wilde's writings. Letterpress printed using polymer plates on different shades of BFK paper, each volvelle is housed in a folder and the set with an introductory panel and line citations is enclosed in a clamshell box. View one.
Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, 2020, 13" x 9 ¼”. A set of five volvelles portraying five faces of Oscar Wilde backing five faces of characters from Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. The inner wheels turn to allow the reading of lines from the play and other of Wilde's writings. Letterpress printed using polymer plates on different shades of BFK paper, each volvelle is housed in a folder and the set with an introductory panel and line citations is enclosed in a clamshell box. View two.
Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, 2020, 13" x 9 ¼”. A set of five volvelles portraying five faces of Oscar Wilde backing five faces of characters from Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. The inner wheels turn to allow the reading of lines from the play and other of Wilde's writings. Letterpress printed using polymer plates on different shades of BFK paper, each volvelle is housed in a folder and the set with an introductory panel and line citations is enclosed in a clamshell box. View three.
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