Forget Gutenberg is very slowly reassessing itself, and trying to become a creation with something useful to offer. It’s a difficult process, as my life has undergone massive changes in the months since I decided that FG needed to become a virtual presence, but there’s been some progress.
The most important bit of progress is that there is now a viable plan for my anti-thesis, Wish. Wish began at the University of Alabama, as the final creative project in pursuit of an MFA in Book Arts, but fell victim to a summer of poor communication and a cross-country move. When I finished moving, everything settled in a manner which involved my thesis in a limbo – it was in Alabama, I was in Massachusetts – which claimed it for very nearly five months. By the time I got the physical object back, I was so frustrated with the concept that I let it sit for nearly two more months. I had basically given up on book arts, and was spending a lot of time in the knitting shop trying to recover my desire to do anything creative at all. Fortunately for Wish, the yarn shop in question is owned by just the right kind of person to have around in a situation like that, and her customer base is similarly filled with creatively encouraging people.
Wish is a thousand paper cranes, made of handmade paper, some with text and some with images. It’s inspired by the legend that folding a thousand cranes grants one wish, and by my early childhood experience of learning to fold cranes. While I am no longer planning on selling it as an “artist’s book” project, there will be keepsake broadsides and various other objects connected to the installation process. I will be donating the proceeds, although I haven’t decided where yet.