Zena Zipporah ~ Ohio

Zena Zipporah: "As an artist of this Kali Yuga age, balancing on this earth which teeters on the last leg of the table of creation, I am an archivist, a collector of old objects, texts, and images, vanishing languages, customs and religions of all places, celebrating creations, disasters, prayers, religious texts, myths, gods and goddesses, swamis, pandits, religious leaders, shamans, holy men and women, knowers of lost knowledge. My art is copying, inventing, trying to understand what went before me and what is coming after me. I draw, paint, embroider, copy mysterical and holy texts in miniature and write my autobiography on eggs, collage ancient icons [and] images on baby and doll dresses, bonnets, socks, on books that are made and found, on stone balls, handmade paper, and eggs of all species. I am trying to make sense of who I am, trying to learn the secrets before they are lost."

Notes from Other Worlds
By Zena Zipporah
Shaker Heights, Ohio: Zena Zipporah, 2002. One-of-a-Kind.

4.25 x 10.875 x 4.5"; 88 unnumbered pages. Collage and paint. Bound in pink leather.

Zena Zipporah: "This book has many of the most interesting postcards, letters, and notes, mostly very old and even foreign that I have collected. The shoe tongue on the cover comes from a wonderful scrapbook done by a nurse from Nebraska in the thirties. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and it included a lot of objects and drawings as well. This book is bound in pink leather. It is a rambling scrapbook of wonderful notes and drawings I added. It was part of the show 'Master Drawings' at the Akron Museum a few years ago."
$2,000

Saddam and the Fortune Tellers
By Zena Zipporah
Shaker Heights, Ohio: Zena Zipporah, 1990. One-of-a-Kind.

4.75 x 2.5 x 1.5"; 54 unnumbered pages. Collage on girdle sample book.

Zena Zipporah: "I got the little book, a girdle sample book, from a woman that sells old sewing stuff. I put this book together in 1990 when my studio was being built. I did it in a spare room, getting books on Arabic poetry from the library during the time of the first Gulf war. I was intrigued by the notion that Saddam Hussein thought he would prevail, that it was his destiny. I used to write poetry (and have actually started to again) so I was moved by the words. I wanted to understand that culture. And I loved the images, too. The book was my anti-war statement at the time. "
$850

Lost Tribes
By Zena Zipporah
Shaker Heights, Ohio: Zena Zipporah, c 1988. One-of-a-Kind.

4 x 6.25"; 16 unnumbered pages. Pages (many of which have torn edges) of collaged and painted tracing paper. Quarterbound in a traditional book style of paper over boards with leather spine.

Zena Zipporah: "The collages narrate the myth that American Indians are one of the lost tribes of Israel and contain some of my favorite images (zebras, Chagall, and autobiographical material), a bit quirky and colorful."

Allusive, elusive, hermetic.
$1,200

Famous Women as Victorians
By Zena Zipporah
Shaker Heights, Ohio: Zena Zipporah, 1987 . One-of-a-Kind.

4.5 x 5.75 x 2.25"; 32 unnumbered pages. Collage and paint with text on old photo album.

Zena Zipporah: "The Victorian women book started with the photography album and the idea of making a book about woman artists. I love collage with the addition of some paint and collaged words. It is a meaningful form for me and I would like to get back to that too. I started with pictures that were an original part of this album and embellished on them based on some of my favorite writers and artists. The de Kooning is one of the most famous modern works based on a woman. Since it was a Victorian album, the whole Victorian theme came into it."
(SOLD)

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