4 x 4" with opening extending from the interior front pastedown. Structure: variation on the Flag Book invented by Hedi Kyle. Papers: Sekishu, Fabriano Tiziano, ave Paper's Multi-dipped Indigo. Imagery printed from reduction woodblocks. Text: Garamond, letterpress printed. Bound in paper covered boards. Band closure with titles. Signed and numbered by the artist. San Francisco Center for the Book: "According to the theory of linguistic relativity and the hierarchy of color, almost all spoken languages evolve words for colors in a specific order: black/white, red, yellow, green, and finally, blue. Almost universally, the word for the color blue is the last to develop. Linguists now theorize that languages do not evolve words for colors until their cultures can fabricate them. Since blue is the most difficult color to reproduce, it is usually the last color word for a language to develop. Additionally, once a color can be replicated, the mind develops a category for items that fit that classification. In fact, in many ancient texts, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the word blue is nonexistent. Which means that poetry, particularly for such aquatic epics, is older than a word to describe the color of the sea. The languages we speak and the words we know influence how we perceive the world. In The Last Color, readers are invited to contemplate this notion, and to wonder what it would be like to look at the ocean and not know the word for blue. "About the artist: Michelle Wilson is a papermaker, printmaker, book, and installation artist. She is also one-half of the ongoing collaborative political art team BOOK BOMBS. She has exhibited her work both internationally and in the United States, including participation in biennials such as Philadelphia's Philagrafika 2010 and the 2006 Second International Biennial for the Artist's Book in Alexandria, Egypt. "In addition, she is a past hand-papermaking advisor to Signa-Haiti, a non-governmental organization developing a sustainable and bio-dynamic economy in Haiti. Wilson’s imprint is Rocinante Press. A former longtime resident of Philadelphia, Wilson now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area." |
