Julie Chen (book artist)


Julie Chen is an American book artist.

Education and teaching

Chen was born in 1963 in Inglewood, California. She completed an undergraduate degree in printmaking at the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. She subsequently became interested in book arts and got a degree in book arts from Mills College in 1989. She began teaching book arts at Mills College as an adjunct in 1996 and became an associate professor in 2010.

Career

Chen has achieved prominence by creating conceptually sophisticated works that combine traditional techniques, such as letterpress printing and hand bookbinding, with more modern technologies such as photopolymer plates and laser cutting. She is known for pushing the structural boundaries of the artist's book with a range of architectural and sculptural approaches. At the same time, her work is praised for its high standard of production and emphasis on the artist's book as a tactile experience. Victoria Steele, the former Brooke Russell Astor Director of Collection Strategy for New York Public Library, remarked that the "physical form" of Chen's work "reinforces the concept and text." Chen investigates the "complex experience" of book arts through her work as an artist and educator.
During her time as a student at Mills College, Chen founded Flying Fish Press, publishing limited-edition artists' books. Chen typically works independently but has also produced books collaboratively with fiber artist Nance O'Banion and book artists Barbara Tetenbaum and Clifton Meador.
Chen's 1992 book, Octopus, features a tunnel-like, pop-up element known in the book trade as a "peep show" and includes text written by poet Elizabeth McDevitt. It offers a three-dimensional underwater scene with the tentacles of an octopus extending behind the words, creating a physical analogue of the poem, which speaks of concealment, disguise, and distance.
In 1994, Chen collaborated with fellow book artist, Ed Hutchins, on River of Stars, a small book, only three by three inches that was released in an edition of 100.
Bon Bon Mots, a meditation on the fleeting sweetness of life, takes the form of a box of chocolates, each of which, on being unwrapped, reveals itself as a tiny book. Each of the five 'chocolate box' books is folded differently and illustrate the range of approaches Chen brings to each project. "Social Graces" is a lotus-fold type, "Life Cycle" is a tetra-tetra flexagon, "Elegy" is a concertina with leaf-shaped pages in a clay cover, "Labyrinth" is ball-in-a-maze type of puzzle in a paper slipcase, and "Either/Or" is a "magic wallet". Chen has also worked with the volvelle or wheel chart, which is a set of stacked paper disks of varying sizes, sometimes with windows.
Chen's books reflect her current interests, current events, and her own personal experiences. In 2002, she released The Veil, a work created in the time leading up to the Iraq War; Chen explains that the book "presents personal reflections inspired by the current political situation in the Middle East and the world" and is in a carousel format.
Chen’s books are in the collections the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Flying Fish Press

Julie Chen began in 1987 as a graduate student in Book Art at Mills College in Oakland, California. Though mostly a personal press for books by Julie Chen, she has also collaborated on artist’s book projects with other artists including Lois Morrison, Barbara Tetenbaum and Clifton Meador.

Group Exhibitions

1989, Forwarding the Book: California Bookmakers, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
1991, California Artists’ Books, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena
1992, Word and Image, Pacific Center for the Book Arts, San Francisco
1995, The Art of Discovery: Scientists’ Books/Artists’ Books, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
2003, Ninety from the Nineties: A Decade of Printing, New York Public Library, New York
2005, The Artist Turns to the Book, Getty Center, Los Angeles
2006, The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
2008, Skipping the Page, Center for Book Arts, New York
2010, Beyond the Text: Artists’ Books from the Collection of Robert J. Rubin, Grolier Club, New York
2010, Fourth International Biennale for the Artists’ Book, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria
2011, One by One: An Exploration of Book Art, Craft in America Study Center, Los Angeles
2012, Exploding the Codex: The Theater of the Book, San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco
2012, Quand Les Livres S’amusent, Musée de l’Imprimerie, Lyon

Solo Exhibitions

2002, The Art of Flying Fish Press, University of Vermont, Burlington
2003, The Art of Flying Fish Press, PABA Gallery, New Haven
2005, Bookworks of Flying Fish Press, Mills College Library, Oakland
2006, Bookworks from Flying Fish Press, Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee
2008, The Bookworks of Flying Fish Press, Center for Book Arts, New York

Artists Books

Flying Fish Press Books in chronological order