That said, many contemporary artists working in the book form are using handmade paper as a dynamic and integral part of their work. This article looks at seven different artist books from the new millennium and examines the variety of ways that each work of art gives voice to paper. As a book artist and publisher, these seven projects appeal to me because of the powerful role that paper plays in the overall concept, content, and aesthetics of these particular books. Caren Heft and Jeffrey Morin produced Martyr Mercury Rooster in 2005. This project is a contemporary Ars Moriendi (The Art of Dying, two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450). This is an artist book project consisting of three softbound books housed in a clamshell box. Each of the books uses Root River Mill paper made by the artists, along with Larroque handmade papers for the covers, and Hahnemühle paper which is not handmade but treated and dyed by the artists to interact with the handmade papers in the books. The result is a rich environment in which the narratives unfold, one that is not entirely pure. In Martyr we learn about the first Palestinian female suicide bomber. Her story is made stronger by the textured pages, like dirty pavement strewn with the aftermath of a bomb. Shards of mica and other materials are embedded in the paper like the ground itself, and several of the papers are dyed red-brown to evoke blood in the streets. By scattering some of the letterpressprinted text across the page, the artists tie the print media to the paper in an effective way to express the disastrous explosion. In Mercury the papers evoke a landscape, a wasteland with fugitive, leeching colors spreading from one page to the next. Lastly, Rooster is based on the chilling fact that in parts of Africa The Integral Role of Handmade Paper in Contemporary Artist Books inge bruggeman Mercury Martyr Rooster by Jeff Morin, sailorBOYpress and Caren Heft, Arcadian Press, 2004–2005, three books, each 12 x 9 inches closed, housed in drop spine box, handmade Root River Mill cotton paper, Larroque handmade paper altered with pigmented gelatin sizing, Hahnemühle cotton rag paper, letterpress, collage elements (plastic, metal, mica, glass, and fiber), produced in an edition of 50. All photos courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted. A page from Mercury Martyr Rooster by Jeff Morin, sailorBOYpress and Caren Heft, Arcadian Press, 2004–2005, 11 ½ x 8 ½ inches. - hand papermaking girls are being raped by men who believe that violating young women will cleanse them of their disease—AIDS. The paper in this last book reflects both the dry climate and the eventual return to the dusty earth that comes too soon for those left infected and untreated. The paper, like the earth, holds the history and the errors of our ways as a record of our past. The viewer/reader, through the tactile experience of these three books, is forced to grapple with issues that otherwise might seem distant from our daily lives. For their 2006 book project Die Häuser meiner Straße, les cases del meu carrer \[The Houses of My Street\], Victòria Rabal (from Spain) and John Gerard (from Germany) incorporate abstract imagery by using pulp-painting techniques. In this fine-press artist book, the images do not function as mere illustration, but instead form a dynamic relationship with the text. Part of Enric Casasses' poem reads, "It's all home for me and it all, was and is and will be home for me." Rabal expresses this idea visually through pulp-painted imagery of things simultaneously microscopic and expansive: a blown-up portion of a celestial map and an enlarged image of a fingerprint with its map-like qualities, as well as other fluid, abstract imagery in the book. Barbara Tetenbaum of Triangular Press in Portland, Oregon also uses handmade paper as imagery in her fine-press artist book, Black Ice and Rain, Psalms 6:6 (2002), based on poems by Michael Donaghy. The paper was made by Katie MacGregor and sat around Tetenbaum's studio for ten years before she found the right use for it. She said, "It was TOO beautiful to print on or do anything to until this book project came along."1 By simply cutting the paper into pieces, crumpling some, and adhering them back together in a dry mount press, Tetenbaum created profound, minimalist imagery of deep, blue-black, inky, carbonlike space. The amazing depth she achieved with the handmade paper joins perfectly with moments in the text such as, "By Christmas we were strangers. It was chance, I heard about the crash. He died at once. Black ice and rain, they said. No news of her." The viewer/reader is able to take great pause in the beauty of the handmade paper, connecting with poignant issues surrounding life and death in these subtle manipulations of the material itself. In many artist books the paper does not always take on such an elemental role. The use of handmade paper can be understated, or even traditional, but nonetheless it sets the tone for the work on the whole in an intentional and thoughtful way. The paper does not always have to be a prominent voice to be an important one, as in Receiver published by Dieu Donné Press in partnership with Galamander Press in 2006. For this book, seven poems, by Nobel Laureate poet Wislawa Szymborska, were chosen by William Kentridge, who made 23 etchings for this project. Following the tradition of the livre d'artiste style of book work, publisher Sue Gosin was a key collaborator in this project. She, with Paul Wong of Dieu Donné Papermill, produced the abaca and cotton handmade text and cover paper for this edition. The purity of the white cotton paper complements and contrasts with the richness of the black ink in the etchings. The allusions to dreams and the overall ephemeral quality of the poems and images are enhanced by the use of translucent abaca sheets that are layered throughout the book. The paper gently assists the transition between inner and outer worlds, between imagination and reality. With all of the works I discuss in the article, I appreciate the artists' care and attention to every aspect of the book as an integrated whole. This is foremost on the mind of Robbin Ami Silverberg of Dobbin Books, whose work consistently uses handmade paper as a strong element. Just 30 Words (Interlineary) (2005), is based on postcards that were written by deported Hungarian Jews to their relatives from Auschwitz, dictated bySS officers. Specifically, this artist book project began by attempting to do the impossible: to read between the lines of an actual postcard sent by a woman to her husband in 1944. The paper for this project is watermarked Dobbin Mill hemp papers, with human hair and eggshell collage, eraser-block printing, piercing, and hand coloring. The paper engages the viewer/reader on many levels. By including watermarks of pre-lined postcards, the paper carries imagery directly in its fiber base. These watermarks, or permanent scars in the paper, also call to mind the connections between paper and skin, the book and the body as historical archives of all things good and horrible in our lives. The colors of the papers add an incredible twist to this work. They are brightly colored red and orange papers that contradict the more ashen colors frequently associated with this subject matter. However in this case Silverberg wanted "colors that expressed a lushness and beauty that allowed another way to explore the magnitude of the Holocaust."2 These colors seem to focus our attention on the strength of people, their love and intimacy, and the bonds between them during such extreme times. This work demonstrates how handmade paper has the ability to thoroughly involve the viewer/reader through the personal act of touch and discovery: "Each time, reading between the lines offers more than what can actually be read."3 The Chilean artist Carolina Larrea is another artist using the intimate nature of the book and the tactile quality of the papers to forge a strong connection with the viewer/reader. Her studies with Timothy Barrett at the University of Iowa led her to create several works, one titled Conciliando el Sueño \[Falling Asleep\] (2005). For this work she uses translucent Japanese-style papers to add a diaphanous layer over photographic imagery of the artist sleeping. Larrea creates imagery in the paper as well, by "drawing with drips" in the papermaking process. This creates a fluid environment and an effect of both a sheet covering the nude Page spread from Receiver, 2006, 14 ½ x 23 ½ inches (open), drypoint by William Kentridge on translucent Dieu Donné abaca paper. Artist book contains 23 etchings, drypoints, and photogravures by William Kentridge, with 7 poems by Wislawa Szymborska, published by Dieu Donné Press in partnership with Galamander Press, in an edition of 50. Courtesy of Dieu Donné Papermill, New York. Robbin Ami Silverberg, detail of watermarked postcard from Just 30 Words (Interlineary), 2005–06, 12 x 9 x 1 inches (closed), watermarked hemp papers with letterpress printing, eggshell, human hair collage, and graphite drawings, printed at Artists' Press, Johannesburg, South Africa, and published in an edition of 30 by Dobbin Books, New York. This artist book deals with the postcards that Jews in Auschwitz were forced to write stating that they were in the fictitious resort Waldsee. Photo: Gregg Stanger. Carolina Larrea, Conciliando el Sueño \[Falling Asleep\], 2005, 10 x 16 inches (open), one-of-a-kind artist book: mixed media on washi made by the artist. - hand papermaking sleeper and a hazy, foggy layer that captures the world between sleeping and waking moments. Much of her work involves a mapping of self identity or an attempt to archive the untangible aspects that form us as people. In another book by Larrea, Shifu (2005), similar themes are pursued. She creates a personal narrative through abstract imagery made of tightly twisted Japanese paper. Without text, the viewer/reader is meant to read the book as a series of flattened, sculptural paper imagery that is embedded in thick pages. The ability of handmade paper to play an essential role in an artist book was made clear to me on viewing another artist book by Robbin Ami Silverberg in her studio in Brooklyn. She showed me a book project made out of translucent, overbeaten sheets, made to look like blueprints. The feel, the sound, the look, and the ideas embedded in the very nature of the paper were completely linked to the imagery, structure, and concept of the book. At the request of a collector, she made a different edition of the same book on commercial drafting vellum, and although lovely, it was surprising to see how much it differed from the original. The book seemed to lose its soul. Seeing these two artist books side by side made it clear just how important the paper is to a work of art. When paper is conceived as an integral part of the whole from the beginning stages of creation, it is only right that we would miss it when it is removed. Experiencing an artist book is quite different than engaging with a painting, sculpture, or other work of art. An artist book is made with the idea of interaction, and with interaction comes a multi-sensory experience involving touch, sound, movement, and sometimes even smell or taste. The tactile nature of handmade paper greatly heightens the experience of engaging with an artist book. Texture adds a complexity of meaning when felt with our hands as opposed to just looking at it. It is also amazing to note the range of sounds that different papers can make when Robbin Ami Silverberg, Home Sweet Home, 2006, 12 x 36 inches open, an artist book of international proverbs about women's work designed into faux blueprint designs of a home, archival inkjet prints on Dobbin Mill translucent abaca sheets, published in an edition of 20 by Dobbin Books, New York. Photo: Gregg Stanger. we turn the pages, some crisp and some soft. These sounds add a subtle dimension to experiencing an artist book. All of the artists I mention in this article successfully utilize handmade paper to captivate our attention and more fully involve us in their work. They exemplify how handmade paper can be used in a myriad of ways, with exciting results. ___________ notes 1. Barbara Tetenbaum, conversation with the author, March 2008. 2. Robbin Ami Silverberg in The Activated Page: Handmade Paper and the Artist's Book, by Jae Jennifer Rossman (New Haven, CT: the jenny-press, 2007), 62. 3. Ibid., 63.