2021 Existent Books Residency: An Interview with Carol Prusa & Elia Khalaf
/Our 2021 Existent Books residency continues this year with some notable expansions thanks to the generous support of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Knight Arts Challenge Award we received in 2019. While our Existent Books project has been developing steadily for the past six years, the added grant funding enabled us to offer a residency stipend for our artists, Carol Prusa and Elia Khalaf.
Both artists were invited to IS Projects in order to experiment with fine art printmaking and book binding techniques. Over a two week Summer residency, Prusa and Khalaf designed artists’ books inspired by our collection of historical letterpress type and/or new printmaking techniques learned with the support of staff and the project’s lead collaborator, Ingrid Schindall.
Carol Prusa’s book, unknowing, is available for pre-order now and will be officially released on October 18th through IS Project’s virtual booths at the E/AB Fair (Oct 18-31) and Vancouver Art Book Fair (Oct 18 - 26). What follows is an interview with both artists reflecting on their experiences during residency while sharing some crucial insights into how their projects came to fruition. More information and a pre-sale for Elia Khalaf’s book, Infinite Seasons, will be released later this Fall.
What are the overarching themes and concepts driving your Existent Book book project?
Carol Prusa (CP): unknowing offers a liminal experience between knowing and not, calling on scotopic vision (night vision) to peer into darkness. I am known for symbolically charged work responding to liminal locations, using graphite pours and silverpoint drawing in an exchange between known and unknown to create erotically charged portals to new possibilities. unknowing (between day and night) articulates emergent forms, offering insight into the mystery of our existence while embracing the magnitude of the universe with the lawlessness of imagination to distill the sacred. This book is a download of what I know, at least for the moment, before it resolves as something else. The book is accompanied by a volvelle; a paper computer with rotating parts, that functions as an instrument to point to confluences that might provide insight into the unknown. unknowing contemplates the mystery of our existence and the possible worlds we divine to construct meaning. A possible world is tucked inside in the form of a copperplate etching on white paper. The three parts (tri-via) are housed in a tri-part case.
Elia Khalaf (EK): My book is titled Infinite Seasons. The project is an immersive book and poetic calendar, fostering connections between mind, body, and nature to explore seasonal indicators that often go unnoticed. The project debunks the myth that there are no seasons in South Florida! It increases mindfulness and intuitive engagement with the cycles of nature, from everyday subtleties all around us to larger environmental changes. Infinite Seasons includes interactive circular imagery and instructive poetry ranging from humorous insights to meaningful recollections. The book stands as a cycle with each end marking a new beginning as the four chapters rotate to represent the elements: fire, wind, earth, water.
Have you pursued artist book publishing previously and if so, did you encounter any limitations?
CP: I have made several artist books before, by hand, but never anything this ambitious or professional. And, never with letterpress and with such expertise directly the making. My only limitations were my lack of experience with books and printmaking materials and methods, limiting my vision. However, my reach was extended by the depth of knowledge offered by Ingrid Schindall and her staff, so that in the end the book could be resolved perfectly. Thank you Ingrid for making it work!
EK: In the past, my practice mostly included zines and print projects. I’ve also collaborated with other artists and organizations to design community-based artist books. However, Existent Books has given me the opportunity to create my own project and produce it with the help of the awesome printmaking team at the IS Projects studio.
Why is it important that this project be a book?
CP: Housing my thinking in a form outside my experience allowed me to think in new ways. I read a lot and think about lots of things but my work is quite abstract, although symbolic, and veils much of that thinking/meaning. So, vulnerably disclosing my work more directly through a book was an important challenge.
EK: Infinite Seasons takes shape as an artists’ book for many reasons. First, I see books as intimate objects that subtly engage each participant with their own senses. We all know exactly what an old book smells like. That’s why Infinite Seasons uses the book format as a tool to activate the senses. Second, books are mobile! While we engage in nature, we can move with the book from inside spaces to the outdoors and back. One more reason is that books are flexible. Artists’ books can kind of be like a sculpture that you can change into different shapes. That’s how I envisioned Infinite Seasons, a book that can sit in one way and stand in another.
What new knowledge (technical or otherwise) was gained through working in artists’ books and printmaking?
CP: I had peripheral knowledge of printmaking and book arts and certainly have looked at the stunning artist books at FAU housed in the Jaffe Book Collection as well as Existent Books. As an artist, I am used to figuring out and making everything by myself. What I learned is there is a world of expert support out there from laser cutters to artist quality laser printers to polymer plate makers to book box makers and binders, so I now appreciate I can continue to envision books and hire those intensely skilled to do this work to physically make the project. I wouldn’t have comfortably known how to navigate that before. I don’t have a lifetime to learn printmaking and bookmaking as my established practice is in painting but can now reach out to those that have that deep knowledge and experience. I am sure this isn’t my last book as I already have something blooming in my head.
EK: OOF, a lot. I learned how to apply printmaking techniques, how to use letterpress and die-cut processes, how to use cool brushes on photoshop, and more! This residency also increased my confidence exponentially in my own skills and vision, and in the power of bookmaking!
What techniques did you include in this project and what drew you to them?
CP: My fellow artist-in-residence worked with screen printing (and amazing color and papers) and while I was drawn like a moth to his work, I am clearly situated in the etching/letterpress world and am enamored with traditional bound books with contemporary extensions. Laser cutting has the level of precision that I bring to my silverpoint drawing. As a painter I am versed in the historical materials and methods of painting like egg tempera and metal leaf and am drawn to the history of bookmaking and love looking at old astronomy atlases and etchings in scientific texts, including volvelles. I used a Durer print for the starfield in my volvelle as a jumping off point, ringed with historic reference, causing me to work with hatching lines that connects to those historic sources. I hatch lines in my silverpoint paintings so hatched lines naturally extended into the hardground etchings and inked drawings made for letterpress. I wanted to make an image for the end pages of the book that felt like the structure of the universe; walls, voids, filaments and clusters. IS Projects set me up to do paper marbling for that – something I had never done before. It worked perfectly and incorporates the uniqueness of chance yet the emergence of structure.
EK: Some of the techniques included in Infinite Seasons are letterpress, die-cutting, gradient color screen printing, drum leaf binding, and more. I was drawn to these techniques since they lend themselves so well to sensory explorations, creating enticing textures and visuals.
What was your experience like collaborating with IS Projects staff?
CP: Everyone I worked with was positive, supportive and generous with their engagement in my project. I tend to get caught in my own head and my vision can exceed my ability to make but in this case, everyone stepped up to the vision and problem solved it elegantly. The depth of knowledge the collective held concerning paper, printing and books is inspiring. The complexity and demand of my project didn’t seem to diminish anyone’s enthusiasm. I believe they love challenges and problem solving so it was a complete delight working at IS Projects. While I held a somewhat determined vision, the expertise and guidance of the artists/printers/bookmakers/designers at IS Projects propelled the project to beautiful solutions and highly skilled outcomes. This residency was an exhilarating experience that has exploded my mind with so many new ideas and ways of making it could occupy a lifetime (I think in my next life I will be a printmaker/poet).
EK: Collaborating with IS Projects staff was an absolute pleasure! I love how different members of the team have their own unique areas of expertise. Whether I needed help choosing typefaces, figuring out how to do digital halftones, or testing screen prints, I was supported and empowered to experiment, play, and learn! And honestly, beyond the book making aspect, I felt like I can be myself there. IS offers a truly inclusive and safe space y’all.
Is collaboration a normal part of your artistic practice? If not, how did it inform this work?
CP: I mostly work alone in my studio and it is a world I delight in. However, periodically I have sought out opportunity to make outside of what I know to open new ways of thinking and making. This has led me to residencies like Kohler Artist in Industry Residency where I worked in ceramic and Berengo Glass Furnace on Murano/Venice which manifest in glass sculptures. Recently I worked with Ground Printmaking/Kim Spivey to make copperplate etchings. All these experiences opened up new worlds and were challenging, refreshing my practice. Being supported to envision and make by experts who have deep skills working in community has opened new possibilities to my thinking.
EK: A big part of my artistic practice is community-based and so it is collaborative by nature. This collaboration informed my work not only in the process of making the book, but also in the final result. This book offers opportunities for ‘readers’ and participants to start dialogue, ask questions, and reach out to connect with nature, with animals and with other humans.
What was something unexpected that came from the residency?
CP: I had envisioned the book housed in a clamshell box yet couldn’t figure out how to elegantly hold the volvelle and etching. I thought of the project as three roads/tri-via so wanted each part to have its place. Ingrid had an epiphany that pulled up a source from her well of knowledge of books structures on the last day of the residency and solved the structure beyond what I could have done. The solution is stunningly beautiful. (actually, the real surprise was when I learned I didn’t have to put all the parts together and build/bind the books myself as I had envisioned patiently sitting day after day doing that and was nervous about having the necessary skills although thought I could rise to the task)
EK: An unexpected and wonderful aspect of the residency was the camaraderie I developed with the one and only Carol Prusa. It was so inspiring to work on my project alongside her impressive artworks. We shared tips, jokes, and everyday Carol came into the studio with a freshly plucked fruit from her own tropical garden. Those mangoes and pineapples were fantastic ways to start every day in residency. *chef’s kiss* (AND the Into The Fold showcase was a terrific group show. I did not expect to see my work at the Coral Springs Museum of Art this year!)
Would you have made this book without this residency?
CP: I would not have initiated this intensive of a book outside this residency. Once I was offered the residency, I dug in and researched a lot about artist books and structures and deeply considered my ideas and poured myself into the project even before getting on site. So, if the residency hadn’t in the end materialized, I would have figured out a way to make this book, somehow – as I was committed to it. But, IS Projects/Existent Books magically and optimally facilitated my vision and the outcome is now beyond what I would have produced.
EK: This residency provided everything I needed to make this book. From early brainstorming meetings with bookmaking mastermind, Ingrid Schindall, to a print shop stocked with print gadgets, screen printers, and ink galore, to mentoring visits by noted curators in the field of art in South Florida while the book was in the design stages.
Anything else you’d like to add? (final thoughts and musings, etc.)
CP: I also worked with a wonderful graphic designer, Leah Roobin, whose knowledge of InDesign allowed an efficient and lovely layout of text. As well, she patiently sifted through fonts with me as I know what I like but I don’t know what is out there until I see it! Working with staff who were facile with software programs needed to create files for printing plates and laser cutting allowed me to keep my mind to my art while I observed them with awe. And, intern Abby Wang, attentively helped me marble paper and was so kind when I, in my absorption to the effort, inadvertently splattered her with ink. And, my residency-mate, Elia, whose generous energy made working there blissful. And, appreciation to the invited art professionals (Ariella Wolens, Jennifer Inacio and John Cutrone) who spent time with Elia and I to learn about our books and offering us supportive feedback. And, most of all, I want to say what a gift this residency was and how grateful I am to Ingrid and her staff for sharing their expertise and ideas and passion to make my book possible (and the Knight Foundation grant). And, a shout-out to Sammi whose supportive presence was daily reassuring as she facilitated my comings and goings, answering questions and making my book residency happen. (I will be back!)
EK: A huge thanks to Ingrid Schindall and Sammi Mclean for the Existent Books opportunity and gratitude to Leah Roobin and Caro Gutierrez for sharing their expertise.
With Knight’s support, we were also able to offer the artists critical feedback from three curators and book experts in the area; Ariella Wolens, Bryant-Taylor Curator at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, John Cutrone, Director of the Jaffe Center for Book Arts and Jennifer Inacio, Associate Curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami.
In addition to the upcoming book launch on October 18th, we also have talks planned with each of the artists. Join Ingrid Schindall for a conversation with Carol Prusa on October 21st, 6pm and Elia Khalaf in early November (date and time TBA), on Instagram live with @isprojects.
For more information on Existent Books, our semi-annual publishing initiative which started in 2014, check out our blog post, where you’ll learn about the project’s origins and previous participating artists.