Water Paper Stone :: A Walk-Through Book

authored by Judy O'Shea

 

THE EXHIBITION

September 5 through December 6, 2014

Water Paper Stone: A Walk-Through Book by Judy O'Shea celebrated the experiences Judy wrote about in her memoir Water Paper Stone. Art from 18 of the French and American artists who participated in the artist-in-residence Judy and her husband hosted in Plaisance, France were featured:

Judy O'Shea :: Chantal Armagnac :: Carole Beadle :: Richard Berger  :: Kay Bradner :: Bernard Cauhape :: Catherine Choron-Baix :: Michel Cubilie :: Sylvie Gravellard :: Mariana Goodheart :: Francois Grand-Clement :: Charles Hobson :: Michel Julliard :: Carolyn Miller :: Mike O'Shea :: Dan Pillers :: Jean-Michel Pret :: Inge Roberts :: Alice Wingwall

THE CATALOG

THE BOOK

Judy O'Shea published a memoir of her experience running an artist-in-residence program in France for 17 years (see www.water-paper-stone.com). The heart of Judy and her husband Mike’s residence program was the group of artists, American and French, who came together to work at La Pilande Basse, an 18th-century watermill in the Aveyron region of southern France that Judy and Mike restored as a base for art. 

 

THE INSTALLATION

Judy came up with the idea to create an artists’ book version of her memoir as a full-scale exhibition at the San Francisco Center for the Book. The scale of the exhibition would allow the viewer to wander through an enormous book: 15-foot covers, a 20-foot spine, and pages hanging from the rafters. The primary structure of the book would be constructed with paper that Judy makes by hand at her Inverness, California studio. Judy invited 17 artists (10 American and 7 French) to contribute the “pages” for this special artists’ book. The pages are as varied as the artists, but are all originally conceived for the site, and have a special dialogue that comes from collective experiences.