Dream Farm Commons and the Rhinoceros Project present
 

A leaf, a gourd, a shell…

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a reimagining of the Rhinoceros Reading Room & Ephemera Collection.

Held in conjunction with the CODEX International Book Art Fair & Symposium, this iteration of the Reading Room will present the work of a handful of the artists exhibiting at the fair, with an evening of readings and performance on the evening of February 6, from 7-9 PM.

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The Rhinoceros Project is the socially engaged collaborative team of Anne Beck and Michelle Wilson, whose primary endeavors have been translating historically potent printed matter into large scale embroideries and watermarks in handmade paper, and making artists books to explain why they are doing such a thing. Likewise, their Reading Room and Ephemera Collection is an evolving collection of literature, research, found and created objects, and maps and diagrams that serves to anchor and communicate the vast web of topics that fuels their collaboration.

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A leaf, a gourd, a shell… is borrowed from Ursula K. Le Guin’s short essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”, wherein she builds on the hypothesis that the first cultural invention is the carrier bag, and expands that concept to include many such items until she arrives where she is headed: to the book. She writes: “A book holds words. Words hold things. They bear meanings. A novel (read: book) is a medicine bundle, holding things in a particular, powerful relation to one another and to us.” (parenthesis ours).

From its inception, the Rhinoceros Project has opened a portal, or a carrier bag, to explore environmental collapse, extinction, colonialism, material metaphor and histories, celestial navigation, myth, revitalization, craft, meditation, and expanding consciousness, among other narratives. The artists presenting on the evening of February 6th, from Northern California, Mexico, and beyond, have been invited to ruminate on where these tentacles are found in their work. Ephemera from their presentations will remain on display for the duration of the installation. Read more about the Rhinoceros Project here.