Dieu Donné Papermill exists today as one of the longest running hand papermaking facilities in the United States. That such a facility could have prospered for more than twenty-five years in space-tight, high-rent Manhattan is remarkable. We should all be grateful that this mill has worked to such great effect with a multitude of artists, from the well known to those just starting out. To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, the mill organized a travelling exhibition and an impressive accompanying catalog. Encompassing artists who have worked at the mill at various stages of its history, the exhibition and catalog—both documents of a distinguished past—debuted at the Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, in East Lansing, in the fall of 2001 (other venues are identified above). Dieu Donné has excelled at introducing artists to the medium of handmade paper. Curator Donna Stein wrote, in introductory comments: the "Mill's objective has always been to expand the creative vocabulary of the artist without permitting the process to dominate." She also notes, importantly, that the show "intentionally ignores paper's traditional function as a support for images." This is a show of works where the images are in paper or of paper, rather than just on paper. The Mill commissioned three artists—Alan Shields, Michelle Stuart, and Lynda Benglis—to make works especially for the Mill's anniversary and for the exhibition. They were, again in Stein's words, the "conceptual centerpiece of the exhibition" and "were selected both for their history of creating art in hand papermaking and their residence on Long Island” (significant because it is where Douglass Morse Howell worked, starting in the late 1940s). Shields's distinct, flat-colored cotton pulps cover mostly three-dimensional wire structures. These playful, game-like (but somewhat simplistic) configurations contrasted with the natural tones and shapes of the other two artists' works. Benglis's pieces, from her 2001 series Game Being, are similar to Therese Zemlin's collapsible forms based on paper lanterns, but more organic and rough, like intestines. Michelle Stuart's Zoomorph, with wax and string embedded between translucent linen paper, encompasses twenty images each of creatures of the earth and of the air. Stuart depicts these captured beings as misshapen and messy rather than idealized. Several works stand out among the others in this notable and varied exhibition. Mel Bochner's Language is Not Transparent plays nicely with layers of translucent abaca, in which the words of the title were formed using multiple, offset watermarks, laid on a black cotton base sheet. Two small, didactic pieces from Christy Rupp's series Labels for Genetically-Engineered Food also include text. These incorporate food ingredients as media: in Genetically Altered for your Enjoyment, onion slices were embedded in abaca and text is spelled out in cumin; Tell Us What We are Eating includes cucumber slices in the sheet.  Lesley Dill's Paper Poem Dress (The Thrill Came Slowly Like a Boon) (1995) is one of her many works based on the poems of Emily Dickinson. Shaped like an ungainly garment (a life-size torso but a huge skirt and impossibly long, thin arms), this flat, linen piece has Dickinson's words spelled out in wire and pulp, spilling down from the collar, most of them illegible. In total contrast, Melvin Edwards's Everyday Connections displays strong, bold forms on a rich linen base sheet. His works use pigment and black and gray pulps made of combined cotton and polyester, stenciled using pieces of heavy machinery and chains. Two works by Chuck Close, created almost twenty years apart, follow similar approaches but with different effects. Keith I (1981) uses pigmented linen on cotton, with a grid of one-half inch square providing the matrix for shades of black, gray, and white; Self Portrait Pulp/Pochoir (2000), also linen on cotton, uses pulp spooned through seven Lexan stencils of a photo-reduced image, laid over a base sheet. Winifred Lutz's works, including A bag of premix left out in the woods… (1999), provide a quiet gravity to the show. The earth tones and rough textured surfaces of her pieces were a welcome relief from the brightly pigmented works arrayed around them. The work of Arlene Shechet also dwell in a limited palette—indigo and blue on white—in grids and architectural patterns. Sandy Skoglund and her collaborators worked terra-cotta colored cotton with bagasse pulp like clay to create a full bathroom—wall tiles, toilet, tub, sink, and mirror—the setting for her stunning performance piece Walking on Eggshells (1997). The work was represented by examples of elements from the full installation (a few tiles and a bathroom sink) and a large photograph based on the performance. One could almost pass by Emiko Kasahara's untitled work without realizing that the memo pad and index cards on display are actually ingeniously and painstakingly made of handmade paper (linen and cotton) with hair embedded between them to mark the lines. More abstractly, Amanda Guest embedded ordered thin strips of cut envelopes between small sheets of translucent linen paper. One appealing aspect of this exhibition, for anyone curious about details, is the labeling. In addition to artist, title, and year made, many of the labels identify the collaborators and assistants, fibers used, and techniques employed. This information helps us both appreciate the effort involved in making each piece and discern the methods and materials used to create the works. The venue where I saw the work—the Meyerhoff Gallery at the Maryland Institute College of Art—was somewhat crowded but ideally situated for maximum exposure. The gallery sits at the entrance to a busy classroom building whose main access was through the space where most of the work was displayed. While this made contemplation of the works an occasional challenge, I saw many students on their way between classes stopping to look the pieces. What a good way to present fine work in an infrequently exhibited medium to a sophisticated and impressionable art community. Whether or not you have seen or will see the exhibition (which continues through 2003), I highly recommend the handsome companion catalogue, also titled Rags to Riches. Many of the works in the exhibit are shown in crisp, clear images (unfortunately rather small except for the commissioned works). The publication contains a foreword by Chuck Close; an essay by Trudy V. Hansen, "Pulp and Possibilities: A Brief Look at Contemporary Art"; a thoughtful reflection on twenty-five years at the mill, by founder Susan Gosin; an interview with Paul Wong; and an essay by exhibit curator Stein, who gives the works a useful context. Documentary photographs of artists and staff at the mill accompany the historical sections. After a checklist for the exhibition follows a dizzying wealth of information from the Mill's history, including a chronology of major events and projects, lists of artists who have collaborated at the Mill, past and current staff, interns, a selected bibliography, and even a glossary of papermaking terms. Thankfully, a comprehensive index accompanies the rest of the material, making this publication especially useful as a reference.