FOBA 2021 Juried Exhibition
Completed 2017 Editions: 45 Dimensions Closed: 8.75” x 6.25” x 1.25” Materials: paper, ink, book board, metal brads Artist resides in Chicago, Illinois
Ephemerus is a 2017 artist’s book edition from the Marjorie S. Coffey Library Endowment Residency at the George A.Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. I designed the book during the semester-long residency in the fall of 2017, inspired by study of occult and magical texts from the Harold and Mary Jean Hanson Rare Book Collection in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department.
When the apprentice of a learned magician falls ill, the magician must push to (and beyond) the boundaries of his power to prevent the apprentice’s soul from slipping into Devil’s Millhopper, an inescapable sinkhole next to his home. A dark fairytale about the limitations of human ability and the inherent impermanence of human life, Ephemerus is an edition of 45 hand-bound, signed copies with three moving pages and two double-size fold-out pages. The book’s illustrations are letterpress-printed linoleum cuts, and I designed the typeface and moving pages.
Hannah Batsel (Chicago, Illinois)
Hannah Batsel is a book artist, writer, and illustrator based in Chicago, IL. Originally from Marietta, GA, Batsel received her BFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Georgia in 2011 and her MFA in the same from Columbia College Chicago in 2016. Her handmade artist book work can be found in library and museum collections around the country, and her mass-market picture book, “A is for Another Rabbit”, can be found wherever books are sold. She lives with her friends and partner in a spooky old house filled with books, taxidermy, and hundreds of houseplants.