Work of Lilian A. Bell Bookartist Virtual Gallery

P.O. Box 1235
McMinnville, Oregon 97128
(503) 472-3566

abell@linfield.edu


Statement

My first work with the artist book format occured between 1976 and 1984 when I explored the use of cast paper as a medium for sculptural books. I temporarily abandoned these smaller pieces in favor of larger scale installations, but in 1990, when I was looking for a way to present my installation ideas in a more portable format I returned to the artist book concept, working from scanned slides of my work combined with magazine montages. Using a Canon color laser copier and scanner I then created imagery to be presented in a folding screen format. The series is entitled "Maquettes For Virtual Places" and uses imagery adapted from my installation work, where rocks, tables and chairs represent events of chance, force and power in this theater of life with its urban thresholds and human interchanges.

The pieces explore the book as architecture, examining simulated spaces, facades, stage sets and interior/exterior backdrops. As part of my continuing interest in what defines our perceptions of reality, these works look at how recorded reality can be rearranged, intensified or manipulated. In between the 'covers' and 'pages' are walls, structures and arcades where imagery is enlarged, reduced, distorted and reversed. Additional emphasis is placed on the low resolution pixelated matrix image that alludes to the flowing, dissolution and reconnecting of those underlying particles that comprise what we call reality.

Interior for Don Quixote:
the obscure by the still more obscure

Laser print/mixed
14"Hx25"Wx12"D
front view


 

Interior for Don Quixote:
between the personal & the social

Laser print/mixed
14"Hx25"Wx12"D
front inside view



 

Interior for Don Quixote:
from the classical to the quantum

Laser print/mixed
14"Hx25"Wx12"D
front view


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Last modified 7 April, 2000