JAB–Journal of Artists' Books

   MCBA/Bolger Concept to Print Residency

   from BF's essay in JAB20

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In November, 2002 Mary Jo Pauly, Artistic Director of Minnesota Center for Book Arts, invited me to collaborate in an NEA-supported residency with another as-yet-to-be-chosen artist on a project to be printed in the summer of 2003 at the Bolger Concept to Print printing plant in Minneapolis. Mary Jo was looking for a way to expand MCBA's programming and publishing activities which in the past have used traditional technologies including printmaking, hand bookbinding, papermaking, and letterpress. This desire intersected with Dik Bolger's long standing idea of having and artist work directly on one of his state-of-the-art multi-color offset presses to produce original artwork. [Mary Jo had picked me because she knew I had been making artist books since 1980 using the offset process as a creative printmaking medium.]

As we talked over the ensuing months it became clear that Mary Jo desired a true collaboration–a new work that came about between the ideas and cooperation of two (or more) artists. Likewise, Dik wanted a print work that was in some ways created on the press–something that could not have been created without the use and distinctive signature of the offset press. He wanted the artists to come into his shop and experiment with the process as well as challenge his employees in a manner that would change the way they were thinking about how they worked. (Ultimately, I have my doubts that the latter desire was accomplished or not.) Like Mary Jo, Dik wanted the work to be new and he didn't want his pressmen to simply reproduce the CMYK files of pre-existing work. He wanted the artists to spend a month working and creating a new artwork at Bolger Concept to Print.

The next step was to select the other artist from the thirty or so who had responded to the call sent out by MCBA. Rosemary Furtak, librarian at the Walker Art Center, Mike Murray, Creative Director at Fallon-McGellicot in Minneapolis and myself were the jurors. The selection process was framed by the above conditions offered by Mary Jo and Dik. After a day of reading proposals and looking at slides we picked Anne George, a Minneapolis artist. She had been working on an ongoing project photographing artificial flowers–something that I found intriguing visually and in ther way that she thoughtfully explained it in her proposal. Anne clearly understood the collaborative process–that a new work was to be created by the efforts of two artists. The decisive moment for me as a juror occurred when Mary Jo (who was operating the slide projector) showed Anne's first slide and remarked that this was a mistake, that it couldn't be Anne's work. As she began to pull the slides out to see the artist's name Mary Jo said she was familiar with Anne's work and it was very different from the photograph shown in the slide. But the slide really was of Anne George's work. To me this was crucial–an artist in mid career who has substantially changed the look or direction of her artwork. It meant she was flexible and curious and willing to explore new ways of working–necessary components in the collaborative process.

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