Description

Le poids des mots / Between hands is an artist book exploring the idea of what constitutes a book. It’s first four “pages” are paper casts of the artist’s torso. The fourth page incorporates a paper cast of the artist’s hands, and the fifth page is just a cast of the artist’s hands. The pages are set on a painted board with two pieces of cheese cloth attached to each side, which can be tied over the book to secure it.

Images and texts are printed on the “pages” using lithography. Certain imagery can be found repeated on several pages: a pair of folded hands taken from a reproduction of the Mona Lisa, and a photo of a plaster sculpture of a girl that the artist received as a gift when she was a child. We also see two family photos showing the artist’s cousin and grandmother. One set of 3-D moulded hands seem to be wrapped around the rib cage, the other is in a folded position.

The texts used in the work, in both French and English, are written by the artist.

Poem written by the artist in the book

Sage comme une image
le geste est répété
Mot après mot
Une main retient l’autre

Line after line of folded hands
Seemingly tied
an empty gesture
On a tip-toe balance
for hands attached

Funambule aux mains attachées
À défaire ce geste
Dénué de sens sans perdre
Sa balance
À droite à gauche, left and right
Hands swing to separate
A new meaning between the lines

Mais,
Sans habitude et sans attaches
Chaque mot pèse
Chaque mouvement
Pour trouver l’équilibre
A silent balance
En lieu sûr


Statement

The title Le poids des mots / Between hands was inspired by the writings of Virginia Woolf, thinking about words and the weight of words. The texts and imagery in the work reflect on how women have been silenced.

Le poids des mots / Between hands was the first work in which I was thinking about the materiality and the impact of words, a theme that continued to be present in many of my subsequent works.

Karen Trask, 2024



Exhibition History

Made in Canada: Artists’ Books VI / Livre d’artistes VI
group
April 25 – October 8, 1990
National Library of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Other Artist(s)
Beauvais, Francine; Bergeron, Andre; Bikkers, Rudolf; Bougie, Louis-Pierre; Cetin, Anton; Cote-Sirois, Manon; Dussault, Monique; Grasshoff, Fritz; Hawken, George; Kermoyan, Ara Alain; Lavoie, Francoise; Lavoie-Maheux, Louise; Leroux-Guillaume, Janine; Pachter, Charles; Riopelle, Jean-Paul; Taylor, Susan Geraldine; Theberge, Vincent; Urquhart, Tony; Bancroft, Marian Penner; Beube, Douglas; Bougie, Louis-Pierre; Gagnon, Pnina; Genest, Rudi; Gilbert, Jean-Pierre; Melhorn, Lise; Nadeau, Therese; Roy, Marc-Andre; Sramek, Peter; Trask, Karen; Guetteville, Bernard; Morello, Nicole; Ulrichs, Timm

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
Le poid des mots/Between Hands
Karen Trask (1989). Galerie Women’s Art, Vancouver, winter, issue 12.