“Booker’s Dozen’ traveling exhibit of artists’ books at Oboler Library in September

POCATELLO – Idaho State University’s Eli M. Oboler Library will host the biennial traveling exhibition of artists’ books, “Bookers’ Dozen 2015,” during the month of September.

Sponsored by Idaho Center for the Book, the exhibit includes 13 unusual books by Idaho artists as well as national and international artists.

The Oboler Library will hold an opening reception on Sept. 3 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., with commentary by ISU faculty members Naomi S. Adams, represented in the exhibit by her book “Nine”, and Paula Jull, founder of the Pocatello Book Arts Group, art director of the Guild of Bookworkers Journal, and advisory board member of ISU’s own Pinyon Jay Press.

Jull was the initial creator of the “Book Arts Collection,” one of the Rare Books collections in Oboler Library’s Special Collections and Archives department. She will be presenting “Pilgrim,” a newly completed collaborative artist’s book, at this reception. Artist Paula Jull designed the book and created the images; poet Janne Goldbeck wrote the text. Both are senior faculty at Idaho State University and received a research grant from the College of Arts and Letters to support the project. A copy of “Pilgrim” has been acquired by Oboler Library for its permanent collection.

“Pilgrim explores why and how we journey, using prose, poetry and image to record both inward and outward aspects of a journey begun in memory,” Jull said. “Text and image converse, not echoing one another, but providing a set of layers that work in counterpoint. This layering expresses the interactions of the collaborators as they constructed the book. We hope that, as others read the book, the connections they make among the parts of it will become another layer of meaning.”

The book was printed on a Vandercook press in the Arts and Letters printing studio, home of Pinyon Jay Press, Jull added.

The unique collections of books that form the “Bookers’ Dozen” will be on display in the New Books area of the Oboler Library, and may be viewed at any time the library is open.

For more information please visit the library’s webpage at www.isu.edu/library for a detailed list of the library’s hours. For more information about the “Booker’s Dozen” exhibit, please email Kristi Austin, at austkris@isu.edu or call (208) 282-4073.

The Oboler Library is located on the corner of 9th and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, at 850 S. 9th Avenue in Pocatello, ID.