Dear Friends,
When I first learned about ABH’s vision, I was enchanted. The more I learned, the more I came to realize how truly our paths align. I’ve been long drawn (moth, flame) to ventures that foster diversity, equity, inclusion, humanistic expression, and creative voice. As we build ABH, I look forward to drawing on my experiences co-creating SheWrites (a global network of women who write, designed to expand access to publishing), helping grow The OpEd Project (a social venture designed to diversify the range of voices we hear from in public debate), and coordinating HumanitiesX (an initiative bridging university and community organizations, based at DePaul).
As a writer, I’m shaped by the generous artistic communities in which I’ve been encouraged. Coming from the world of words, I’m delighted to be tasked with leading an Artists Book House that unites the literary, book, print, and paper arts under a single roof. The location of said roof has yet to be revealed, but the power of arts, culture, and creativity knows no bounds.
Too often, opportunities to seriously (and/or playfully) create remain locked behind gates or within ivory towers with great barriers to entry. Growth as an artist of any sort involves training combined with opportunity, a confluence historically accessible to the already resourced. My life’s work is to be part of those movements that tear those gates down.
There is untold richness in hybridity, and I foresee ABH as a home for it all. I can’t wait for those who’ve experienced books as limited to content to mingle with those who work with the visual and structural elements integral to the book arts–all in one locale. I envision a bustling center of creative activity, a welcoming home that helps nourish, advance, and sustain a diverse range of writerly and artistic careers.
On the heels of the pandemic, it’s time to come together to celebrate, appreciate, linger in, and make books (all sorts). And it’s well-timed for other reasons as well. Campaigns to defund libraries and ban books from school curricula propagate the idea that that expression is in need of regulation. Yet knowledge and expression will not and cannot be contained. Let’s build a big tent under which Chicago’s large and wide-ranging bookish community can gather, collaborate, celebrate, write, make art, and thrive!
Whether you’re an aspiring or established book artist or writer, a supporter of the literary or book-inspired arts, an amalgam of all or simply book-arts-curious, I hope you’ll drop me a line (or an image, if that’s your jam!) and introduce yourself. If you’re part of an arts organization in the Chicago area and are hungry to collaborate with us on events, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me at deborah@artistsbookhouse.org. I’m excited to learn with and from you as we go.
Here’s to all that will unfold.
For the love of books,
Deborah