Impressions of Loss
By Gina Fowler
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The Puzzled Press, 2020. Edition of 10.

5 x 5.5"; 12 pages including pastedowns. Thread lifelines span double page openings. Pages of handmade cotton rag paper. Bound in black paper over boards with gray cloth spine. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Gina Fowler: "'Impressions of Loss' is an attempt to actualize the impact of familial death on those who are left behind, by representing individual members of my family who died during my lifetime. I used soft handmade paper and hand-dyed thread to create a tangible, tactile impression for each loss that I have experienced in my family. Each individual thread represents one family member whose life intersected with mine. "

Colophon: "Each of my direct ancestors who was alive in 1995, when I was born, is represented by a single, hand-dyed thread, braided together to form a physical family tree that spans across pages ... Each horizontal inch of the folios in the book represents approximately 6 months and through the book individual threads break off from the braid and pierce through the pages, at the location corresponding to the date of the death. I hope ... you can feel the message embedded between these pages that words cannot convey."

Gina Fowler, artist statement: "Attending my mother’s funeral when I was four years old is one of my earliest memories. The timing of her death, which occurred weeks before what would have been her 30th birthday, resulted in my perception of a mother eternally frozen in the prime of her life. My relationship with my deceased mother has led to a deep fascination with the concepts of motherhood and feminine relationships as well as the way that my limited personal memories of my mother have influenced my identity."
$175