The First National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Show is a solid representation of emerging artists. The jurors selected a wide variety of work from traditional books (in which the paper supports the image it carries) to pop-up structures, wall hangings, and sculptures. Schools represented include the Art Institute of Chicago, Rutgers University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), University of South Dakota, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Georgia, and the Corcoran School of Art. I saw the show in Atlanta, at the Robert C. Williams Museum of American Papermaking, the second of several venues. The curators—Lynn Sures, who teaches at the Corcoran, and Cindy Bowden, curator of the Museum of American Papermaking—have planned this as a tri-annual exhibit. They hope it will encourage more students to enter the field. A bi-annual event would be more effective because most graduate art programs last two years; those who are in graduate school in papermaking in the years between exhibits will lose the opportunity both to participate while they are still studying and to benefit from the experience. This first collection had as its jurors Jo Ann Moser, from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art, and Jane Farmer, an independent curator formerly at the Smithsonian. One of the main sponsors was Crane and Company; other businesses and organizations sponsored awards. I was most impressed with the sculptural work in the show. Cape Ann Tools, by Sarah Hollis Perry, won an award from Twinrocker. It uniquely uses the paper medium to simulate other materials and beautifies the mundane. Simply described, it represents three farming tools—a shovel, a pitchfork, and a trowel—with natural, unfinished wood handles (including small branches) and gut to tie the elements together. Initially the piece looks simple and a bit plain. When you notice that the "metal" parts of these tools are actually handmade paper, the realization takes you completely by surprise. Another piece, Mick Luehrman's Alchemy, wonderfully blends flax paper and copper to create a sort of vessel. Sacrifice, by Elizabeth A. Knabe Roe, engaged me. It stands about as tall and big as a large body. Knabe used wood to create a stark rib cage–like structure and stretched flax paper over it to create skin that is equally haunting and beautiful. Weeks after visiting the exhibit I can still see this piece clearly in my mind. I wish it had been positioned so that I could walk around it, but maybe some of the mystery comes from not knowing what the other side looks like. A Target on my Skin, by Susan Heggestad, which won an award from Lee S. McDonald Inc., is a torso-shaped wall sculpture made with ink and cut paper. The cut down the center of the paper creates a post-surgical scar. Part of the text reads "...when I watch your eyes seeing my eyes to see the target in your eyes when they watch my skin to..."; variations of this phrase are handwritten all over the work. Several wall pieces also caught my attention. Smear, by Donna Ruff, consists of seven individual sheets of paper with lithographs and rubber-stamped images of a circle and text, in red ink. The deckle edges of the paper effectively play off the organic imagery and the clean line of the rubber stamps. Film Space-Terrain, by Fawn Atencio, uses mixed media—hand-painted map transparency, blue print, and nylon collograph—to create a lush "painting." In City Light, Krauti Waghmare uses pulp painting to create pastel-like imagery. Notable artist's books in the show include Daniela Deeg's The Book of Warnings, a monoprint and gum transfer piece, and Andrew Saluti's Proof, which uses a window cut out of a book to house a smaller book inside. Rich intaglio prints provide imagery throughout the work. Emily Glaubinger's piece, He Never Came Out, won the Robert C. Williams Purchase Award. It is a charming little pop-up folio piece with linocuts and silkscreen. I wish I could have seen in more depth one piece in particular: Aunt Marian's Days, by Caroline Carlisle. I talked to the artist briefly at the Atlanta opening and she gave me some insight about the work. This interactive piece was unfortunately shown unopened and in a Plexiglas case. The closed structure is a reproduction of a bed, made out of handmade paper and a wooden crate. Inside (unseen in the Atlanta installation) are small squares of imagery related to the artist's family history. Carlisle intends viewer-participants to create their own narrative with the imagery. I really enjoy interactive pieces and was disappointed to be denied even a glimpse of this work's insides. Galleries and museums face a dilemma in safely displaying pieces like this that really need to be held and manipulated to be fully appreciated. The most disappointing aspect of the show in Atlanta was the presentation. The Robert C. Williams Museum of American Papermaking has limited space. Most of the works were shown in a back gallery, with a few pieces along the wall that leads to it. A paper quilt piece near the entrance to the museum was not readily noticed. The rest of the show was situated in the poorly lit lobby. Nevertheless, the Atlanta setting of this exhibition provided a nice blend of both historical and contemporary applications of papermaking. If you missed the show there or in Chicago, try to catch it at one of its other venues.