1. For Immediate Release
Contact: Elizabeth Weisman
914-654-5291; eweisman@cnr.edu
Book Arts Exhibit Will Come to The College of New
Rochelle in Fall
Works From “Center for Book Arts,” Celebrating its 40th
Year
Two-Month Show Will Also Be Part of New Rochelle ArtsFest Weekend
NEW ROCHELLE, NY, July 2015 – Rethink the way a book appears – not the words, but the form
itself – and you may get a sense of the unusual artworks that will be on display at The College of
New Rochelle’s Castle Gallery this fall.
Pieces inspired by books, from the Center for Book Arts in Manhattan, will be displayed this
autumn, starting Tuesday, September 8, in the gallery at 29 Castle Place.
Called “Then and Now: Ten Years of Residences at the Center for Book Arts,” the exhibit will
feature more than 120 biblio-inspired works from 60 artists.
These are not tomes to be read. They are works that explore the book as an item to be altered,
transformed or completely re-imagined. A book’s pages may be rectangles cut from various
plastic bags, or folded leaves from a beech or poplar tree.
One work of art is a swing made from pages of Moby Dick sliced into strips and twisted into
rope. Another, called “Common Dictionary,” is a gumball machine in which each plastic capsule
holds a slip of paper with a word in English, Chinese and Spanish that begins and ends with
similar sounds in all three languages.
“It is an art object, not just a book,” said Alexander Campos, Executive Director and Curator for
The Center for Book Arts. “It can be anything from a codex format to an accordion format to a
book that’s been carved into a sculpture, to an unbound series of prints that has a sequence to

2. it. It could be a box with parts in it. It could include anything from paper marbling or paper
treatments to relief printing, from some type of collage layering to sculpting, or even video or
new media.”
It is the first time the Center has exhibited works in Westchester since a 2010 showing at the
Barbara Walters Gallery at Sarah Lawrence College.
But the Castle Gallery show is not just any exhibit. It is part of the Center for Book Art’s 40th
year celebration. All of the artists whose works are exhibited have gone through one of the
center’s two core programs – the Artist-in-Residence Workspace Grant program or the
Scholarship for Advanced Study in Book Arts. The exhibit will include at least two works from
each artist – one from when he or she took the class, and another created years later.
The inclusion of works from several years apart is intended to show the artists’ commitment to
creating this type of art.
The works are more than clever twists on what it means to be a book.
“Most importantly, it can be a catalyst for particular issues – anything from social, political,
sexual identity, economics, immigration,” Campos said. “Racism, the environment, all those
issues are being discussed.”
The exhibit will be shown September 8 through November 8. An opening reception will be held
Sunday, September 27 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The timing allows the exhibit to be a part of the New Rochelle Council on the Arts’ annual
ArtsFest celebration, September 26 and 27, when studios, public spaces and businesses in New
Rochelle and Pelham present exhibits for people to visit. The Castle Gallery will be a stop on the
rounds made by a New Rochelle Culture Trolley offering hop-on, hop-off rides.
The College of New Rochelle is recognized as a “College of Distinction” and has been named for
five consecutive years to the President’s Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal
recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-
learning, and civic engagement. The first Catholic college for women in New York State, The
College of New Rochelle was founded in 1904 by the Ursuline Order. Today, it comprises the all-
women School of Arts & Sciences, and three schools which admit women and men: the School of
New Resources (for adult learners), the School of Nursing and the Graduate School. The main
campus of the College is located in lower Westchester County, 16 miles north of New York City.
The College maintains five other campus locations in New York City for the School of New
Resources in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan. Visit the College’s website at www.cnr.edu.
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