I hope you find my personality and passion in these pages. You can find me at the intersection of typography, color and photography. Enjoy my “design feng shui!”
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Remix of Sleeping With The Dictionary by Harryette Mullen (2016)
Hand-bound book
Paper, waxed thread
This project is a remix of Harryette Mullen’s abecedarian poetry work, Sleeping With The Dictionary, which was an intimate play with language. Her conflicting relationship with the American Heritage Dictionary as an African American woman inspired this abecedarian work, as she physically slept with the dictionary. My remix of her work is arranged by the alphabet, with photocopies of the American Heritage Dictionary organized with each letter. Lyrically, the photos play with Mullen’s poems and give her words further attention and meaning. The final product is a hand-bound book from a to z– a passport to the inner workings of her mind.
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sample spreads
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These Versions Of Me Belong To You (2018)
Hand-bound book
Paper, waxed thread
This piece was an exploration of the physical book-making medium, with individual contributions from Toby Wu, Rachelle V. and Ash Khatter. The content of the art collaboration called for this medium; I physically wove together a moment in time, an experience simultaneously lived from four different perspectives. I learned Japanese bookbinding, which opened my artistic expression up to a new medium. A book is a meditation, a slowing down and a symbol of impermanence and fragility. This Version of Me Belongs To You explores the impermanence of the versions of ourselves we reserve for different people. An ode to the parts of ourselves we’ve lost along the way and the parts we’ve gifted away for other peoples comfort.
more documentation photos here
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VENOM jrnl (2018)
Zine Installation
Typewriter on paper, copied photos, binding
VENOM jrnl is a collaborative art series I started in Fall of 2018. I created a series of chapbooks, zines and printed works that I installed in the community. It was an artwork explosion. My background in Art Therapy has taught me the healing power of artistic expression, and my desire to bring more art to the community stays at the core of my artistic mission. I started collecting art from people: poetry, photography, short stories, napkin art, anything. With the content, I created zines from the community and for the community. After creating the zines — my technique explores a blend of typewriter art, photography and drawing, all hand-bound into book form — I left the copies out in the community as little secrets for people to discover and appreciate. This project is closely aligned with my mission as an artist; I consume and curate the beauty that I’ve gathered from the world, digest it and then spit it back out into the world. It’s a give and a take. A meditation.
click here for page scans
click here for additional documentation photos
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It’s a full moon and I’m crying (2020)
Printed book
This poetry book is a culmination of four years of listening to my heart, a 96-page alien space for the dark and ethereal– my quarantine baby.
Studio documentation photos to come
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Thanks!
ali cowelalliecowel