From a 6 by 8 foot suspended kite, 40" photographs, and a 7 foot embroidered wall piece to a string of books each less than an inch high and some tiny paper bees, the new exhibit at the Atrium Art Gallery is a study in scale and imagination. The ingenious works are by 17 artists who teach at the University of Southern Maine’s Book Arts at Stone House summer program.
The artists are exhibiting work in their particular fields including photography, textiles and needlearts, book binding, printmaking, and calligraphy. The exhibit includes artists books that are folded, woven, reconfigured, stitched, and suspended from the ceiling.
The exhibit, “Reading ,Writing, and Defining,” continues through June 14. The USM Lewiston-Auburn College Atrium Art Gallery is located at 51 Westminster Street in Lewiston. Gallery hours are Monday-Thursday, 8-8; Friday, 8-4:30; Saturday, 9-3. Admission is free.
“Art in books is ancient," writes Richard H.F. Lindemann in the exhibition essay. “Book arts in the Occidental tradition--crafts such as fine printing and bookbinding, printmaking, papermaking and marbling--find antecedents in the High Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But books-as-art first finds its voice in the mid-twentieth century. Artists’ books, defined simply as art objects that reference book-reading or book structure, began as a nonconformist anti-establishment movement.” Today book arts are considered one of the most innovative and exciting of the visual arts fields.
Lindemann is the director of the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives at the Bowdoin College Library.
The USM Book Arts Institute is held at USM’s Stone House in Freeport and is open to students of all levels. The week-long summer institute brings together well-known book artists with participants interested in exploring the complex and engaging nature of the artist's book as a form of expression. The includes topics such as star books, books with moveable parts, paste papers, calligraphy, traditional book binding, screenprinting and other techniques. Rebecca Goodale, one of Maine’s most creative artist in the book arts field, is director of the Institute.
From a 6 by 8 foot suspended kite, 40" photographs, and a 7 foot embroidered wall piece to a string of books each less than an inch high and some tiny paper bees, the new exhibit at the Atrium Art Gallery is a study in scale and imagination. The ingenious works are by 17 artists who teach at the University of Southern Maine’s Book Arts at Stone House summer program. 
The USM Book Arts Institute is held at USM’s Stone House in Freeport and is open to students of all levels. The week-long summer institute brings together well-known book artists with participants interested in exploring the complex and engaging nature of the artist's book as a form of expression. The includes topics such as star books, books with moveable parts, paste papers, calligraphy, traditional book binding, screenprinting and other techniques. Rebecca Goodale, one of Maine’s most creative artist in the book arts field, is director of the Institute.