Description

Continuum / Unfolding is an artist’s book with two main components: lithograph prints and a paper cast of the artist’s hands using coloured paper pulp.

The lithographs were printed on one continuous sheet of paper folded into eight panels accordian style. The paper is printed both sides using several litho stones. Photo-litho plates were used to make three chine-collé images.

The recto side includes a series of excerpts from books by Canadian women authors (Kristjana Gunnars, The Night Workers of Ragnarök; Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel; Gabrielle Roy Ces enfants de ma vie; Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree; Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye). All the imagery and writing relates to hands.

Both elements fit into a custom-made fabric-covered cardboard portfolio.


Statement

Continuum / Unfolding was a continuation of a series of projects exploring the meaning of women’s hand gestures.  I was particularly interested in creating a response to the representation of women with hands folded passively on their laps. The other hand gestures featured in the print—cupping water, touching, reaching—along with the excerpts of the women authors’ texts, together tell a story of women using their hands.

Karen Trask, 2024



Publications

Ceci est mon livre : quelques stratégies opératoires du livre d’artiste au Québec
Danielle Blouin (2012). In Le livre au corps, , edited by Alain Milon and Marc Perelman, Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre, 341 p.

Une discussion du livre d’artiste au Québec à travers les oeuvres de Karen Trask, François Morelli, Gray Fraser et Bonnie Baxter.

Enpreintes de la main Continuum/unfolding
Marie-Luce Frenette (1992). Art Magazine: Noir d’encre, Revue d’art contemporain, Vol 2 No 2, page 8

Keywords: artist book
À corps perdu
Marie-Claude Dupont (1992). Voir, Québec, Qc. juin 1992