The list of exhibitors includes such internationally recognized names as Robert Rauschenberg and Louise Nevelson, whose claims to fame are grounded in painting, sculpture, and more traditional media, and less widely known but important figures, who work almost exclusively with paper, such as Lin Fife and Louis Lieberman. The mix guarantees a relatively broad cross-section of today's craft and concepts. The show includes such diverse expressions as ceramic artist Robert Arneson's huge, cast-pulp, drawn-on, and wall-mounted head of Jackson Pollack, 54" x 42" x 11", and Harold Paris' free-hanging Cocoon, which was created on an armature from freshly formed paper, and embellished and embedded with string, woven tape, and other mysterious foreign material. As is always the danger, in some of the works pulp seems gratuitous, as in the one cast platter by Peter Voulkos. Despite or perhaps because of its elegance, it appears watered down and lacking in the immediacy and vigor one associates with the original hand-thrown and manipulated pieces. Three or four of these platters might have been more convincing, perhaps moreso if the eerie translucency of the pulp had been exploited in their display. As it was, to get past the frontality of the way in which it was presented, I had to peer around the side of the Plexiglas box frame in order to catch a glimpse of this aspect of the paper's natural beauty. Nevertheless, the show, as presented, is stunning. It is, though, to my taste, burdened by an attachment to images brought to the cast paper process from other media sources. One particularly fine example that avoids this pitfall is Winifred Lutz's The Skin Holds Light by Stretching Darkness. Its sublime integrity is based on its translucency; its integration of form, fold, and structure; its expression and sense of material. To describe Lutz's work simply as "cast paper", as the catalogue does, when in actuality it was formed on a custom, handmade, three-dimensionally shaped mold, is forgivable, but detracts from its inherent mastery and mystery, particularly when compared to the more traditionally cast works of Arneson and William Tucker. Kathryn Lipke's Archeological Reference plays beautifully between full-size, cast pulp replicas of antique architectural columns and projected slide images of historic ruins. She has deftly juxtaposed and superimposed the cast columns against close-up photographs of textured wall surfaces; mid-distance shots of similarly-scaled, on-site columns; and aerial shots of entire ruined cities. The continually shifting scale, perspective, vantage, and textural reference create an experience that transcends the obvious or purely novel. It is an intelligent and compelling work. Lagniappe I and Lagniappe II, by Lynda Benglis, successfully capture the festive, playful, Mardi Gras quality of children's and folk papier-m[^]ach[']e. Suzanne Anker transmogrifies pulp into embossed sheet steel bed plate while Laddie John Dill's two works appear to be trowled in concrete. The polychrome, laminated, mixed media Double Bind of Lin Fife expresses the rich color and pattern of a southwest Indian blanket. Chuck Close and Joe Zucker work directly with their fingers to apply toned and tinted globs of pulp to a freshly formed sheet. The achievable effects seem limitless and, as more and more artists work with this material, many new ones are bound to be discovered. If I have one particular, if minor, complaint it is this: a fair number of the pieces in the show were executed in collaboration with paper artists, technicians, and entire workshops. Although it is mentioned briefly in the catalogue essays, it would seem appropriate and honest to have given them more recognition. It could not have hurt to have mentioned that the Rauschenbergs were produced at an ashram in Ahmedabad, India, or that other works were made in workshops in California, New York, or various points in between. This, along with photographs of papermaking equipment and facilities, plus a glossary of techniques and terms, would have gone a long way to flesh out for the general public the nature of the process and people behind paper arts. Tucked away in a basement gallery of the museum is a wonderful little display of Dard Hunter's original books and watermarks, plus examples of ephemera from local collections. Calling greater attention to this mini-exhibit and adding one truly hard-core, unadulterated conceptual pulp piece would have gone a long way to round out this otherwise altogether worthwhile exhibition. The show travels to the Art Museum of Santa Cruz County from October 8 through November 27, 1988, and to the Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from January 22 through March 12, 1989. It is accompanied by a handsome, illustrated catalogue designed by Shelle Barron, who, over the years, has been responsible for providing the Erie Museum's printed material with a distinguished graphic look and identity. John Vanco has continually striven to bring to the Erie public new visual experiences that provide variety, quality, excitement, and a look at what is going in the various domains of the art world. Paperthick: Forms and Images in Cast Paper is no exception. The exhibition has been generously supported by the Hammermill Foundation

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