BRODER

Poetry by Anna Reckin; photographs and bookwork by Paulette Myers-Rich.

This book is a collaboration between a visual artist (photographer, printmaker) and a poet. The initial introduction of the poet to the artist was by submission of a manuscript of a suite of poems for consideration of a fine press poetry book. After a first reading, the artist wrote to the poet expressing interest, but at a future date, perhaps in a year. A period of four months passed and the work was given a second reading. This poetry again resonated with the artist, and in such a visual way, that it inspired a set of photographs that relate directly to images evoked in the suite of poems titled 'Broder'. The artist and poet decided to join in a collaboration that would bring together the photographs and poems into a fine press book.

Physical Description of the Book:

An accordion book comprised of five images with five poems, alternating between image and text. The pages are individual sheets, 6x6" joined by strips of black and white reversible Unryu paper, with the black serving as a border between the pages. The book is bound on black linen cloth covered boards, with a black flax slip sleeve over the book. The sleeve has a title label affixed to the front and the colophon on the back. A linen covered clamshell box houses and protect this book. This is also covered with black linen cloth over boards, with a label on the spine. The images are B/W duotones printed with archival inks. The text is handset type in Perpetua and letterpress printed. This project is not only a collaboration between a visual artist and a writer, but also a marriage of digital technology and traditional hand printing processes, showing that these are not mutually exclusive technologies, but compatible tools in the digital age.  

About the poem:

Broder [Border] is a play on the French word “broder”, to embroider. The poems look at specific types of embroidery and/or lacework, challenging the idea the stitching is simply "surface ornament.'' The various kinds of openwork described such as drawn thread work, broderie anglaise, and fagoting (decorative bridging between strips of cloth) are all concerned with opening up the woven surface.  Embroidery is seen as stereotypically female, but the techniques described here ie piercing, binding, etc., speak more of violence than gentility.

About the photographs: 

These images are meant to be seen alongside their respective poems and are not intended to stand alone, however they are not merely illustrations of, but rather responses to the poems. The photographs were composed using old linens and sewing tools collected over the years by the artist. The first image is soft, reflective and gentle; an unformed piece of weaving. The next image is of linen, clasped by a metal tool, ready to be worked. The third image is of linen, creased, with drawn threads, resting, also reflecting the moon. The fourth image is a piece of linen with openwork edging pierced through with a needle, gathered as for smocking. The final image is of a tear, with opened scissors blades adjoining the torn threads. Evocative of female anatomy, and the sometimes violent side of domestic life. This grouping begins with softness and ends with a sharp edged violence that is the underlying theme of the poetry suite. Both the images and poetry are somewhat abstract, beautiful and subtle, serving to draw the reader in and slowly reveal the double-edged nature of women's lives.

(This review of Broder appeared in How2, E-Journal of Contemporary Innovative Writing Practices by Women, March 2001)