Raised in Montana and currently residing outside of Rochester, New York, Drenk has been actively engaged in the altered book medium for over 15 years and has work in many private, corporate and university collections. Drenk holds an M.F.A. in 3D Art from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College.

Drenk selected 41 works from 29 artists representing Argentina, Canada, the United Kingdom.“The pieces chosen for ‘Bound and Unbound V’ represent a variety of artistic responses to books,” Drenk said. “Some artists are engaging with the specific content of a particular book or author, while others are working with the general notion of books as repositories of knowledge, narrative or institutional bias. Each piece asks you to engage with books in new ways: to read the book visually and to apply new layers of content to original text.”

The University Libraries Art and Exhibits committee, sponsor of the exhibition, seeks to both showcase a diverse range of current international altered book art and to present the work locally.

“Since 2009, when ‘Bound and Unbound’ began, we have seen a steady and robust representation of the thoughts, ideas and processes which inspire altered book artists to work,” committee member Sarah A. Hanson-Pareek, curator of digital projects and photographs, at the University Libraries said. “This year, themes such as fear, power, technology, knowledge, introversion, entropy, nature, immigration, re-imaging, re-contextualizing, recycling, public memory, religion, morality and, of course, the artistic process, as well as many others, are present.”

Artists included in the exhibition are: Elizabeth Ashcroft (California), Patty Bruce (Texas), Guylaine Couture (Canada), Adele Crawford (California), Yael David-Cohen (United Kingdom), Carol Freid (Kentucky), James Halvorson (Oregon), Jennifer Maria Harris (California), Peggy Johnston (Iowa), Ryan Lewis (Michigan), Adriane Little (Michigan), John Magnan (Massachusetts), Vicki Milewski (Wisconsin), Irmari Nacht (New Jersey), Dawn Peterson (Georgia), Gina Pisello (California), Chris Revelle (Georgia), Dave Rollins (Tennessee), Liliana Rothschild (Argentina), Lynn Skordal (Washington), Sue Sommers (Wyoming), Nancy Steele-Makasci (Utah), Margaret Suchland (Arizona), Laura Tabbut (Ohio), Carmen Tostado (California), Rhonda Urdang (Arizona), Susana Vizcarra (Alabama), Aaron Wilder (California) and Nanette Wylde (California).

To read more about each artist and their work, please see the “Bound and Unbound V” LibGuide.

“Bound and Unbound V” is available for viewing online in the Digital Library of South Dakota. The exhibition is located in the exhibition cases on the second floor of the library and are open to the public during library operating hours.

For more information, please contact Sarah A. Hanson-Pareek at [email protected], Danielle De Jager-Loftus at [email protected] or Michael Boring at [email protected]

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