We Can Go Beyond It
By Bridget Elmer
Tallahassee, Florida: Flatbed Splendor, 2009. Edition of 43.

6.25 x 6.25 x 1.5"; 20 leaves. Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates. Digital collages by the artist. Handset type. Variation on accordion fold by Hedi Kyle. Housed in an archival folding box with velcro closure.

Each end of the book has removable spines to allow manipulating of the pages in many ways. The pages come apart. It is up to readers to make the sequencing what they wish.

Text: "Paradigm shift. Every choice becomes a new connection to be made. We are not static. We are not stuck. Predetermination becomes plasticity.Synapses become symbols with constant potential for new meaning. This book is dedicated to the artist's father, whose beautiful brain fills these pages."

Prospectus: "WE CAN GO BEYOND IT explores the theory of neuroplasticity - an assertion that the human brain is capable of changing itself. Inspired by the source imagery, generated from EEGs of her father's brain, the artist simulates the neurological process of synaptic change. The original brain maps are dismantled and transformed. The resulting symbols and color fields are recombined into new images, new openings. The reader is invited to take the book apart, rearrange it, go beyond it. A celebration of possibility and free will, We Can Go Beyond It represents our inherent ability to change and renew."

Flatbed Splendor: "Source imagery generated for therapeutic use and graciously donated by Dr. Thomas Matthews at Optimum Performance Solutions in Topeka, KS. Letterpress printed in 16 colors and 62 runs at the University of Alabama. Handbound in a limited edition of 43 copies."
(SOLD)