Foreign elements, such as flower petals or confetti, can be added to a vat of paper pulp to create random, free-floating visual and tactile field effects. These foreign elements are distinct from the paper pulp itself but are held permanently intact by the paper pulp fibers that surround it. Foreign fibers, such as silk or synthetic, are often added to pulp for paper currency to prevent counterfeiting. Larger foreign elements that are collage-size can be placed in a composition on the surface of a fresh base sheet. When a second sheet is couched on top, the collage elements are permanently sealed between the two sheets. Because pulp bonds to itself, instead of couching a full sheet on top, inclusions can be almost “glued” onto a bottom sheet with splashes of pulp or pulp painting covering them. In this way, pulp is almost like skin that envelops foreign elements as it surrounds them.
Collaborators: Paul Wong, Amy Jacobs, and Lisa (Switalski) Haque.
As a South Korean artist, Do Ho Suh created thread drawings that reveal his characteristic themes of identity, memory, and sense of home.
Suh embraces accidents: “Sometimes, when the tension between the two threads in the sewing machine is not right, little loops of excess thread appear at the back of the sewing. In the beginning, I trimmed these excess threads, but I grew to like how they change the shape of my drawings when they interact with water in the paper pulp.”
The dissolvable backing on which the thread drawings were embroidered disappears during the wet-into-wet papermaking process. The embroidered images are secured with methylcellulose glue during the papermaking process.
Ann Hamilton’s interest in textiles extended into her papermaking work at Dieu Donné. For the edition Poche, Hamilton collaged raw sheep wool, linen thread, and silk into abaca paper with varying degrees of visibility and embraced the air bubbles that accidentally appeared in the couching process.
Hamilton’s collaboration at Dieu Donné developed into designing sheets of paper to become wearable works of art and musical instruments. This culminated in a performance with the experimental music organization Bang on a Can at MASS MoCA in July 2014.
For the performance, the wearable paper instruments were activated by over thirty-eight musicians and “given voice” through the performer’s gestures.
Amy Jacobs is a master collaborator and papermaker at Dieu Donné. In her Over Shot series, she placed stencils based on historical weaving draft patterns over layers of paper pulp and collaged textiles. Using water, she excavated into them to create an intricate, optical image that is both material and mechanical.
Courtesy of Amy Jacobs
William Villalongo,Specimen,2023.
Collaborator: Tatiana Ginsberg.
For the edition of Specimen, William Villalongo and collaborator Tatiana Ginsberg used water and stencils to blow out a circular shape from a layered sheet composed of a cotton base sheet and an overbeaten abaca sheet with a metallic wash. Methylcellulose glue was used to collage printed images of butterflies and minerals, on top of the circular sheets.
Jessica Stockholder collaged fabric and textiles with paper and other graphic elements such as inkjet prints and pulp painting in Men’s Suit.
Edition of 15.
Courtesy of Dieu Donné Papermill, NY.
Amanda Guest and Bart Wasserman,Czeslaw Milosz,1996.
Collaborators: Susan Gosin (book design and paper), Paul Wong (paper), and Sharon Dürr (assistant, paper).
In the book Czeslaw Milosz, artists Amanda Guest and Bart Wasserman used various hand papermaking techniques, such as watermarking, collaging, stenciling, and pulp painting, to illuminate poems by Czeslaw Milosz.The artist-designed pages are bound in a white linen paper cover and housed in a white linen cloth-covered clamshell box. The linen paper pulp used to make different elements of the book was made from the same linen cloth used to cover the box.
Published by Dieu Donné Press, Inc. Letterpress by Anne Noonan and Joe Elliot.Bound by Carol Joyce.
Jane Hammond,Be Zany, Poised Harpists / Be Blue, Little Sparrows,2002.
Collaborators: Susan Gosin and Mina Takahashi, assisted by Paul Wong and Jan Drojarski.
Jane Hammond’s book Be Zany, Poised Harpists / Be Blue, Little Sparrows, features examples of many handmade paper techniques, including collage, cutouts, and custom-designed colored sheets of paper of various weights. Raphael Rubenstein’s poems are based on the Oulipian language games in which stanzas are built around arbitrary rules. Jane Hammond responds to the playful premise of the game by structuring the book around children’s school folders and primary colors.
Published by Dieu Donné Papermill, Inc., Dieu Donné Press, and Silicon Gallery Fine Art Prints, Ltd. Letterpress by Ruth Lingen.Bound by Carol Joyce.
Robert Motherwell,El Negro (livre d’artiste),1983.
Printed by Kenneth Tyler, Roger Campbell, and Lee Funderbeurg for Tyler Graphics, Ltd. (Bedford, New York). Paper by Steve Reeves and Tom Strianese. Bound by Walden / Lang In. (New York City).
Edition of 51 + 10 AP, 1 Trial proof, 2 PP, 1 right to print proof, 3 hors commerce, 3 presentation copies + 7 lithographs were published individually as separate signed and numbered editions of ninety-eight.
