THIRD EYE by SUSAN BEE

THIRD EYE
By Susan Bee
(Commissioned for the Miniature Book Library, 2020)
Size: 1.25" x 1.5"

The Miniature Book Library is pleased to present THIRD EYE, its commissioned miniature book by Susan Bee who created mixed media drawings & collage on a leather-bound book with Arches paper pages.

Susan Bee is an artist living in Brooklyn. She is represented by A.I.R. Gallery in NYC. Bee will have a solo show, “Anywhere Out of the World: New Paintings,” at A.I.R., September 12-October 11, 2020. She has had eight previous solo shows at A.I.R. Gallery, NY, and solo shows at Southfirst Gallery and Accola Griefen Gallery in NY. Bee has also had solo shows at the University of Pennsylvania, Odetta Gallery, Belmont University, Kenyon College, Columbia University, William Paterson College, the New York Public Library, Pratt Institute Library, Virginia Lust Gallery, and her work has been included in numerous group shows. 

Bee’s artwork is in many public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Getty Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. 

Bee has published sixteen artist’s books. She has collaborated with: Susan Howe, Charles Bernstein, Johanna Drucker, Regis Bonvicino, Jerome McGann, Rachel Levitsky, and Jerome Rothenberg. Bee is the coeditor of M/E/A/N/I/N/G: An Anthology of Artist's Writings, Theory, and Criticism, Duke University Press, 2000, and the coeditor of M/E/A/N/I/N/G Online. Her artist’s book archive and the M/E/A/N/I/N/G Archive are at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Bee’s paintings are on over 50 book covers and her artworks, interviews, and writings have been included in numerous publications.

THIRD EYE is the second miniature book made by Susan Bee. The first was Bee’s Knees, which she did in quarantine in April 2020. It is in the collection of Mimi Gross, who gave her the blank miniature leporello, and is shown in the film: 

Susan Bee: Creativity in Isolation, Beinecke Library, Yale (July 7, 2020). Yale holds a great artist book archive and there is more information about Susan Bee at their site.

As regards THIRD EYE, Bee shares:

When Eileen asked me to do another miniature book, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. She sent me a darling leather book made with Arches paper and immediately I plunged in. I used stickers that I have been collecting including ones from Japan that I bought in Hong Kong. The title: Third Eye sticker is one of the Asian ones from my collection.

I like the immediacy and the childish directness of the stickers. I use them in a collage with line drawings and watercolors and gouache. For this book, I also used a lot of colored pencil, crayons, and markers. I like tackling each page without a plan. Just a desire to be playful and to have fun. I really wanted the book to be amusing and colorful. I love Eileen's phrase “bruisingly cute.” I have been making a lot of unique books since the quarantine and over the last few years. It takes my mind off mundane matters and politics and it is a nice relief from the rigors of oil painting. It is a way to cheer myself up in these dire times and my friends seem to enjoy them too.

More biographical information about Susan Bee is at the UPenn site.

We are pleased to share the interior of this unique book, and thank Susan Bee for allowing her works to be shelved on the Miniature Book Library:

~~

The Miniature Book Library welcomes Susan Bee's THIRD EYE!

PORTRAITS by ULYSSES DUTERTE, JR.

PORTRAITS 
By Ulysses Duterte, Jr. (2020)
1.56" x 1.56"

The Miniature Book Library is pleased to welcome PORTRAITS, a miniature art book by Ulysses Duterte, Jr., a Philippine-born, interdisciplinary visual artist based in San Francisco Bay Area, California. You can see more information about his art at his WEBSITE. PORTRAITS is a conceptual exercise in linear minimalism as Ulysses uses thin lines to develop six concepts:

Mother & Child

Couple

Self-Portrait

Family

Group

Retouched

The results are witty and capped by his smart rationalization of numerous blank pages following his images which total three per concept; the 15 pages (from the first 5 concepts) leave the book's majority of pages to be blank following his last image. Before the first of the blank pages, he inscribed the title "Retouched" even though he technically never touched them. But by grouping the blank pages under "Retouched," he presents an implication his pen/brush had marked the blank pages before they were *retouched* back to blankness--thus, absence as (the conceptual artist's) presence. In turn, the concept allows him to *finish* his book in a deft minimalist turn.

Ulysses has been using lines to create a variety of artworks. He describes his line-based art as follows:

"Most of my landscapes and seascapes are reminders of my long drives in Nevada, New Jersey and California. Driving alone on those empty highways gave me time to meditate on my relationship with God. Primarily, those vertical lines always remind me of the need to be God-oriented (pointing North) when it comes to my values. Putting these symbols make me a part of His landscape. I choose to paint straight lines. For me, straight lines represent absolute truth."

The Miniature Book Library presents another example of Ulysses' line-based approach with his 5 PAGES, ONE BOOK -- click on the link for more information, including how, when asked to share images of other artworks that utilize his line, Ulysses presented the following work:

"Same Difference #2" (acrylic and watercolor on paper) 2019

We are pleased to present images of PORTRAITS, exactly as found in the miniature book. But, first, it's also worth noting how Ulysses also repurposed the book cover to align with his art. The book cover initially was covered in colorful and patterned fabric from Nepal. As you can see, in a well-considered decision, Ulysses painted a solid black band to mute the bottom of the cover as well as inscribed his vaunted thin line.

We thank Ulysses Duterte, Jr. for sharing and donating PORTRAITS to the Miniature Book Library!