West Coast Prepping for print bombing

For our next print bombing - this time in SAN FRANCISCO - Book Bombs is trying something a little different. The paper and print began on the West Coast by Michelle, and then traveled to the East Coast to be completed by Mary. Here are some images of what Michelle started.

The print is on paper made from Andean Pampas grass seed hair (see posts here and here about using the stalks and leaves of that plant). Above, a close up of a corner of a wet sheet.



A plane image was stenciled onto the wet sheets in paper pulp, made from leftover scraps of paper from our Axis Alley installation.


When dry, a woodblock of pampas grass seed hair was printed.


The prints have now been shipped off to Mary - keep your eyes peeled for how this print evolves.

Axis Alley opening this Sunday

Please join us in Baltimore this Sunday, May 23, from 2-6 pm, on the alley behind 2000-2212 N. Calvert Street for a barbecue and alley walk to celebrate the transformation of space created by 24 artists. Pictures of the Book Bombs installation Fibrile are in the previous two blog entries. Hope for good weather! The rain date is Saturday, May 28. Tune in for updates.

More Axis Alley pictures

Axis Alley Images

Book Bombs spent the day in Axis Alley, transforming the rear of 2212 N. Calvert Street in Baltimore. Michelle sweeps the stairs, above, in preparation for wheatpasting.


Our cut denim paper, made from donated old jeans, was installed amongst a couple of paintings from the Fall 2009 Axis Alley installations.


The paper was cut into the shapes of endangered plant species native to the Baltimore area, such as Virginia mallow and Striped gentian.


Nearby properties will be transformed by other artists in the coming weeks. If you are within hailing distance of Baltimore, please consider coming by for the opening alley walk on May 23, late afternoon. And hope for good weather!

Axis Alley Install This Weekend

Book Bombs has been busy cutting denim paper for our Axis Alley installation this weekend.


Artist Sarah Doherty has coordinated with the Baltimore Housing Authority and the Mayors City Council to utilize vacant properties in the Old Goucher neighborhood of Baltimore for site specific artworks. From the Axis Alley site: “Axis Alley seeks through creative engagement to utilize the backyards of vacant properties and vacant lots as a canvas for creative works that transform, activate and revitalize the overlooked, under-attended areas of Baltimore’s back alleys."

Book Bombs will be wheatpasting handmade denim paper cut into the shapes of endangered native plant species at the rear of 2212 N. Calvert:


The opening celebration for this and other installations at the rear of the 20xx-22xx blocks of N. Calvert St. will be on May 23, with a rain date of May 22, from 3pm to 6pm. (Check our blog, or the Axis Alley site, for updates.)

And look for some installation shots cropping up here next week!

Impractical Labor

Denim paper production is underway for an installation in a few weeks in Baltimore as part of the Axis Alley project. It's been a few months since Book Bombs has engaged in the pulpy side of production, and I was oh-so-ready to get my hands wet. While I got the vat set up, I was thinking of the absurd elements of the task we are undertaking: cutting up old jeans, pulling sheets of handmade paper, cutting this paper down by hand into the shapes of endangered native plant species, and wheat pasting all of this to the back of a building that will ultimately be demolished in a few months. The absurdity is heightened by the use of tools that were not designed for me: clumsily cutting rags using Michelle's large right-handed shears with my small left hand since I'd forgotten my own scissors, leaning into a too-tall vat to form sheets large enough to test the production limits of my five-foot frame. The labor is ultimately satisfying, but I couldn't help but think about the time in one's life of newly learning fine motor skills and constantly climbing up into kitchen chairs designed for humans twice one's size.

Look for more updates on the Axis Alley project soon, but this seems an appropriate time to share a link to Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA). ILSSA, instigated by our friends-in-labor Bridget Elmer and Emily Larned, serves as a point of solidarity for those of us who engage in obsolete technologies as a labor of love and perhaps compulsion.
ILSSA operates a listserv for communications amongst members. Union members also receive printed matter on a periodic basis from the ILSSA Research Institute (pictured above!). Their motto: "as long as it takes!" That sounds about right. Thanks for the solidarity, folks! Sometimes it really helps us get through the task at hand....

[posted by Local 215 Shop MT]