Book Artist Emily Martin with Shawn Sheehy
Check out Emily Martin’s Collaboration with Cy Hedayati here and her video Conversation with Jamie Thome here.
“The weather is atrocious, but the human climate is sublime.”
These words aren’t Emily Martin’s own, but she was once so enamored with the sentiment that she created a series of books around them. Like the original speaker, she was coming to terms with putting down roots in Iowa.
These words continue to ring in my ears, too, 20 years after Emily first shared them with me. For Emily, they are a concise reflection of worldview. For me, they mark the moment when I became a fan of Emily’s work.
Emily and I bonded at the back table at Movable Book Society conferences. Her salty sense of humor and colorful character (I mean this figuratively and literally. She matches stripes with dots to wonderful effect.) make her a go-to conference companion; but more to today’s point, a thoughtful and compelling creator of artists books.
Emily Martin is one of today’s most prolific book artists—and one of the few who consistently integrates paper-engineered structures into her projects. Enjoy reading about her process!
—Shawn Sheehy
How did you begin making paper-engineered structures? What's the story of your first paper-engineered project?
I gradually eased into making artists books in graduate school at the University of Iowa. My earliest efforts were shaped and limited by my minimal knowledge of how to construct books.
I was first introduced to them by Jim Snitzer, who taught silkscreen and non-silver photo media classes. I learned to set type and print on a Vandercook from Kay Amert during my off-year before starting graduate school (1975-76). After graduate school I learned various book bindings from traditional binder Larry Yerkes, and how to make pop-ups from Annie Wilcox. Both Yerkes and Wilcox were past apprentices of Head University of Iowa Conservator Bill Anthony. I benefitted greatly from the fledgling developments at the UI Center for the Book even though I was not yet directly involved with the Center.
I studied sculpture and drawing as an undergraduate and painting in graduate school. I came to realize my major interest was storytelling and eventually I figured out that books could allow me to do all those things together. I started teaching myself sculptural book forms mostly by making and remaking models.
In 1995 I went to the Paper and Book Intensive for the first time to take a session on Writing for Artists Books with Susan King, and while there I found my tribe. Soon after I made my first pop-up artists book In One Ear; an accordion book with a central pop-up in each spread. The text features three people who each tell their version of the same story.
You have created over 50 artist books. Your topics range widely—from politics to personal experiences to pie. How do you decide if an idea is book-worthy?
Initially I was making one-of-a-kind books, or using photocopiers to create multiples. As desk top publishing expanded, I was able to expand too. Early on, I didn’t have steady access to a Vandercook, so I often used inkjet printing for projects. I also had two children in the early 80’s so I had to maximize my studio time. I make a distinction between nice little ideas—the Pie Books, for instance—and more ambitious ideas like Sleepers, Dreamers, & Screamers. The Pie books were inkjet-printed single-sheet books and, start to finish, took a couple of months. Sleepers, Dreamers, & Screamers was letterpress-printed with elaborate paper engineering and took more than a year to make. All of my books contain an idea that I am intrigued by, that has something to say to other people, that I feel compelled to explore.
Nice vs. Polite. Sleepers, Dreamers & Screamers. Order of Appearance: Disorder of Disappearance. Cross Words. Half a Sandwich & The Other Half. I Like It. Here. Romantic Advice from a Christmas Cookie.
Your titles are ripe with delicious turns of phrase. How quickly and easily do they come to you?
The titles usually come early in projects. They are my way of focusing the story. Sometimes they pop into my head intact; sometimes I circle around, fine tuning the phrase. I want every element of a book to be doing its part. The titles are the introduction and I want them just right. I like playing with language. My early books were all imagery, and the only texts were the titles. That allowed me to develop confidence in my writing.
It would be easy for an outsider to think that you have a dreamy balance between your work with the University of Iowa and your creative work. How did that evolve?
It has definitely been an evolving situation. I have always juggled various parts of my life to make sure I have studio time. After graduate school I married, had two children, had day jobs and studio time. Time passed, and the kids grew up. I started teaching at the (UI) Center for the Book as an adjunct in 1998. My artists books started selling. I had more studio time.
My kids are now adults. I divorced, resulting in a small continuing annuity. I still teach regularly at the Center, with one or two classes a semester. My books are still selling. Iowa City is not tremendously expensive. It’s a lovely community with lots of writers. I prioritize carefully how I spend my money: art supplies, cooking, bike rides, and travel.
It is a tradition among book artists to publish under a unique press name. For many years you published under Naughty Dog Press, but recently you pivoted to publishing under your own name. Why the change?
I started using the Naughty Dog Press on a whim in 1996. It was named after Gomez, my beloved Jack Russell terrier. I didn’t give it too much thought and I didn’t really think about being stuck with it. Over time I got tired of how people reacted to it, and mostly at book fairs. After three or four days of people commenting on the name—especially with the dreaded “cute”—I would be so tired of it. And, again for book fairs, I would be listed as Naughty Dog Press and not my name. Finally in 2017 I decided to just go with my name. Now I get listed in the E’s for Emily, not M’s for Martin.
You’ve recently focused on interpreting Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. Why have you chosen those particular texts to process your feelings about current events?
I fell into using Shakespeare when I entered a designer bookbinding competition in England. I was feeling a little stuck with my work and I thought I might shake things up a bit. The competition required the use of Shakespeare in some manner, and it was broad in how that could be interpreted. I decided to make a carousel book referencing the Globe Theatre, elements of The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, and commentary of my own. It was a complex challenge that I enjoyed very much. Not only was the book accepted for the exhibition, it won a silver medal—an oversized sterling silver pen nib.
The competition had a lot of restrictive requirements. When I moved on to Othello, I set my own parameters. I was intrigued to revisit familiar texts that I hadn’t read recently. The plays read very differently to me at my current age than they did when I was MUCH younger. I pay attention to the characters differently and I want to highlight that.
Oscar Wilde is another writer that I read as a young person, and have revisited from time to time. He is a master of the clever turn of phrase, and a pointed observer of humanity.
Something I hadn’t thought about initially is that they are both playwrights. Plays are meant to be interpreted. And to put it bluntly: both playwrights are dead, their work is in the public domain, and I can do what I want with their writings.
Early in the pandemic, for 60 days, you created a puppet a day—your Solitude Squadron. You used puppets as structure for your Leer project, and you use puppet-like features in your Desdemona project. Why puppets?
I have always liked books with moving parts and interactive qualities. I have been spending a lot of time with performative texts, so it seemed natural to start making “performers”; aka, puppets. I myself am not comfortable being a performer so I make things perform for me. I have an extremely loose definition of what constitutes a book; books and puppets can work together.
About Emily Martin
Emily Martin teaches bookbinding and paper engineering classes at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. She has been exploring the relationship between format and content for many years in her work. Martin often combines letterpress printed images and text with movable and/or sculptural book forms using a variety of traditional and experimental techniques. While earning her MFA in painting (completed in 1979) from the University of Iowa, Martin was introduced to letterpress printing and artists books. She has held artist’s residencies at the Center for Book Arts, New York City (2002); Lawrence University (2012), the Penland School of Crafts (2014), The University of Florida, Gainesville (2015); and most recently was printer in residence at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, England (2018); where she printed a small book entitled Order of Appearance, Disorder of Disappearance. Martin has taught many workshops across the United States, in England, and In Chile, most often at the Center for Book Arts in New York and at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She received a silver medal from the Designer Bookbinders for her book The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (2012), and her book The Tragedy of King Lear was a semi-finalist for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Artists Book award (2020). Martin’s work is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers , and is in collections world-wide including The Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Library in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.
About Shawn Sheehy
Shawn Sheehy has been teaching book arts courses and workshops on the national level for 20 years, including stops at MCBA, CBA, Penland, Arrowmont, FOBA, Pyramid Atlantic, SFCB, and PBI. His broadsides and artist book editions have been collected by Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, UCLA, and Harvard. He has created two trade pop-up books: Welcome to the Neighborhood (2015) and Beyond the Sixth Extinction (2018). Both were published by Candlewick Press and won numerous awards. He holds a Book Arts MFA from Columbia College Chicago.