Monumental Ideas In Miniature Books

HOUGHTON, N.Y. – It is often said that great things come in small packages. Envision taking your favorite book and miniaturizing it down to a scale, whereby the very size and shape of the book allows you to experience the work differently, perhaps in a more personal and interactive way. You become more involved simply because the story is not just told in the pages, but through shape and design elements – all in miniature. It is with this vision that The Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books (MIMB) was created and will be shown around the world during a four-year tour. The MIMB will be on display at Houghton College, Ortlip Art Gallery from November 8 through December 21, the only stop for the exhibit in New York State. A special opening talk and reception will be held on Friday, November 13 at 7 p.m., featuring Hui-Chu Ying, curator of the exhibit and professor at the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at the University of Akron.  

The MIMB is a collection of 142 books handcrafted by international artists. The exhibit will travel to 45 sites ranging from Adams House Gallery at Harvard University to Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan. “The magic of this exhibition is the incomparable variety and miraculous ingenuity of these one hundred and forty-two books by artists from around the world,” stated Del Ray Loven, director of the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at the University of Akron. “These are visual voyages, painterly poems, worlds in microcosm, experimental excretions, microscopic realms made monumental. The artist may build the book like an architect, assemble it like a garment, narrate it like cinema, or use it to showcase their images, gallery-style. The approaches are beyond limit.”  

The exhibit was the vision of Hui-Chu Ying, professor at the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at the University of Akron. “Organizing the MIMB project has turned out to be the most adventuresome experience in my professional career. I thought I would be lucky to have 20 artists participate in the project,” remarked Ying. “The range of MIMB books’ ideas and mediums are incredible from complicated structures, beautiful poems, humorous texts, intricate drawings, and some of the greatest ideas one could imagine. Many of the books use unconventional materials and innovative bookmaking techniques. We received books not only from the USA, but also from Korea, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Spain, India, Pakistan, the UK, Canada, Mauritius and Argentina.”  

Ying points out that viewing works in miniature offers a unique experience. “Presented with the miniature, the viewer, no longer assigned to the passive role, could instead devour the work, taking it into his or her soul. The miniature invites the viewer into a personal and intimate relationship. With attention drawn to the significance of the seemingly insignificant, the momentousness of the miniscule is magnified thus instilling monumental value.”

The MIMB includes titles such as A Wonderful Toy, Where’s My Bus?, Congo Rhapsody, The Chicken Box, Your Life in Two’s, Stargazer and Endangered. Of particular interest is a miniature book completed by Jillian Sokso, assistant professor of art at Houghton College. Titled, As A Woman I Want No Country, the piece combines elements of embossing, archival inkjet and silkscreen and is presented as a 3” round book.  

Charles Beneke, associate professor of art at the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, contributed an essay for the exhibit catalogue and states, “The culturally constructed value and magnitude of the artist/author’s words and images within miniature books transports us to the intimate space of our imaginations. With our focus directed to the interior of the book our relationship with the exterior world narrows, but we can always see our hands holding the book and we are physically aware of how we must move to navigate its form as well as its narrative. Interacting with these objects activates all of our senses. When presented with a miniaturized object, we assume the pretense of control. But with the miniature artist’s book, our physical movements are dictated by scale and structure. We handle delicately, we fumble awkwardly, we play happily. As readers of miniature books we become subservient despite our initial notion of superiority. We at once hold and possess the book and are possessed and held by it.”

Great things do indeed come in small packages as evidenced by the detailed artistic works presented within the Monumental Ideas In Miniature Books. There is but one opportunity to view these astounding works of art. Make plans to visit the Ortlip Art Gallery at Houghton College and experience art in miniature.

The Ortlip Art Gallery is located in the Center for the Arts at Houghton College. Named for H. Willard and Aimee Ortlip and their family, some of whom were previous art faculty members, the gallery serves current students, faculty and visiting artists. The gallery is open Monday – Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.