Bookarts at CFPR, UWE : Bookmarks IV: Participating Artists : Leslie Wilson-Rutterford

Leslie Wilson-Rutterford UK
HIGHLIGHTS: 100 Bookmarks

I loved being a student and still love to learn. Highlighting passages in books, although considered a crime in some quarters*, helped me to learn and remember. While the bookmark demarcates a place in a book, highlighting makes a feature of particular words. As someone who likes altering books, the bookmark and the highlighted words came together naturally; cut out from the pages in a book. The surrounding text becomes a blur, and in their new format the words take on an evocative power. What could become a catch phrase or jargon is stunted by the lack of commercial context, allowing the reader to find their own meaning and/or connection.

The bookmarks highlight the enjoyment of books and of reading. Through the power of words and our minds we learn, remember, and discover. Partly selective and partly serendipitous, the choosing of words for, and the making of the bookmarks was the highlight of my day. They are a celebration of the mundane and the sublime. I want the bookmarks to suggest that each moment in time we have the choice to think, and act and make something the highlight of our day.

Once the bookmarks were finished, I didn't want to casually discard the book simply because there were 100+ holes in its pages. The book from which I cut out my bookmarks became a new work of its own. I re-inserted the highlighted words from the bookmarks into their original pages, in a new form. As each bookmark highlighted a thought, word, or deed the pages became a new possibility or way of looking at life. With accompanying visuals, each reintroduction is very different. Most of the pages allow for multiple views to the preceding and following insertions. However, if one wishes to see the pages autonomously, I made a viewing aid to enable that.
As the bookmarks connect to the book, and its pages connect to each other, they also carry potential to extend beyond their bound existence. Each page could be its own project, as well as a new direction for me, my art. Hence the title: 100 Projects.

Along with a viewing aid, the book also contains a table of contents booklet, showing where the bookmark highlight is located in the book, and two test bookmarks.

Owners of the bookmarks can email me for a copy of its developed page, or come and see it at the London Artist's Book Fair 3-5 November at the ICA, London. More of my work can be seen at www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/

*Look at this website: www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ marginalia/x6110052.html I had to giggle.

Bookmark materials: Book pages, highlighter/felt pens, cardstock, inkjet, spray mount, reflective plastic squares, various threads, stamp ink pads, gel pen.

email: lwrjam@yahoo.com

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