Events

Julie Chen is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is an internationally recognized book artist and founder of Flying Fish Press, where she has been publishing limited-edition artists’ books for over 36 years. Her books have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at such places asthe National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. and the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, Johannesburg, SA. Her work is held in major collections worldwide, such as the Library of Congress, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was a featured artist in the PBS series Craft in America (2009) and in the feature length documentary The Book Makers (2020).

Flying Fish Press 

Julie Chen is the founder of Flying Fish Press and a Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. For nearly four decades, she has explored the possibilities of the artist’s book, creating works that combine text and image with innovative structures, fine printing, and meticulous craftsmanship.

Chen established Flying Fish Press in 1987 as an imprint for the design and production of limited-edition artist’s books. Her work begins with an expansive understanding of what a book can be. Rather than functioning simply as a container for words and images, the book is a physical object whose materials and structure can contribute meaningfully to the experience of reading. Pages unfold, rotate, expand, reveal hidden elements, or transform into sculptural forms. Some works require the reader to follow an unexpected sequence or manipulate the book in order to discover its contents. Through these interactions, the reader becomes an active participant in the work.

This relationship between form and content is central to Chen’s practice. The structure of each book is developed in response to its subject, allowing the physical experience of handling the work to become another way of encountering its ideas. Across her body of work, Chen has addressed personal, philosophical, social, and political themes while continually reconsidering familiar assumptions about books and reading.

The making of each edition is itself a complex and highly considered process. Flying Fish Press books are produced in small editions and often involve letterpress printing, intricate paper engineering, specialized materials, and numerous stages of hand assembly. A single book may pass through many processes before it is complete. This attention to craft is not separate from the conceptual work; construction, movement, sequence, texture, and touch all contribute to the reader’s experience.

Chen’s books ask us to consider reading as something we do not only with our eyes, but also with our hands and bodies. Opening, unfolding, turning, rotating, and navigating become part of how meaning is revealed. The result is an experience in which the boundaries between book, sculpture, and interactive object become fluid.

Presented in conjunction with the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, and the WMU Special Collections Library, where additional works by Chen are on display, this exhibition highlights handmade artist’s books in a variety of formats. The works featured here are permanently housed in the collections of the Zhang Legacy Collections Center at Western Michigan University.

Lecture
Assembling Meaning: The Making of Artist's Books

In this presentation, Julie Chen will share stories about what goes into the making of her artist's books. She will explore how research, content development, paper engineering, book design, and sometimes a bit of luck come together to shape her limited edition works.