collaborations

Mujo-Mujeni, Phase I and II, artists’ books by Leila Leder Kremer and Tom Virgin

Posted by Tom Virgin

These books are collaborations with Leila Leder Kremer, studying the dismantling of aging Downtown Miami’s down at the heels former icons: the Burdine Quartermine Building (the Pink Building), Dupont Plaza, and the Everglades Hotel. All were fashionable in their day, but as times changed and profit displaced value in the housing markets, the buildings were leveled and replaced. Mujo-Mujeni Phase I and Phase II have two parts each, one by Leder Kremer and one by Virgin, each taking a distinctive view of the process of destruction…and what remains.

Mujo-Mujeni, Phase I    artist’s book    6” x  9” x 1”    2005
This is a two sided artist’s book (dos a dos) with photographs and haiku on one side by Virgin,  and the same on the other side by Leder Kremer. Both sides depict a short period of time in Downtown Miami in which major physical changes occurred. The book is printed on a HP DesignJet500 using Rives BFK and Arches 88 in an edition of twenty.

Mujo-Mujeni, Phase II   artist’s book    6” x  9” x 2”    2006.

Two separate books are bound together in interlocking covers in this volume, printed on a HP DesignJet500 using Rives BFK and Arches 88 in an edition of twenty. The books uses a serpentine structure to show digital imaging, collage, relief printing and haiku by Leder Kremer and Virgin.

 

 

Conversation, an artist’s book by Tom Virgin and Kari Snyder

Posted by Tom Virgin

Conversation    artist’s book/ title page    6.5” x 9” x .5”    2008

This book was born of a profound respect of the printmaking skills of Ms. Kari Snyder. A Florida Individual Artist Grant Winner, Kari’s intaglio prints of indigenous plants, birds, reptiles and other wildlife compelled me to ask her to collaborate on a book project.

Conversation was letterpress printed from linoleum plates, half from Snyder and half from Virgin. It has sixteen pages bound with a complex quire binding.  The cover is laminated paper with Thai Banana on the outside and Japanese Katazome paper on the inside. Each artist contributed five plates and hand colored the Rives Tan paper pages. Conversation is an edition of 20 books. “Conversation” was printed at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida with special technical assistance from Seth Thompson.