March 25 – May 25, 2013
Collins Memorial Library
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
A Conversation with the Artist:
Friday, April 19, 2013, 4-5 p.m.
Room 020, Collins Memorial Library
In this exhibit are selections of artist books from the Ohio artist Diane Stemper whose books reflect her environment in both large and small ways. Her earlier work foc
used on the close ground and surfaces around her; included in the show are Insectlopedia and Dust Gardens, which examine the cycles, both imagined and real, of common insects and bacteria. Her later work, inspired by over 75 found petri dishes, ventures into a round space: Compendium: Cell asked gallery viewers to consider and comment on scientific fact; Darwin’s Darlings commemorates Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday; and other artist books visually consider being at sea, the doldrums and the interaction and impact of science on nature. Her current work is a musing on the act of collecting, comparing and classifying. Her mixed media artist books combine drawing, linoleum prints, digital prints, found and altered text presented in a variety of book structures.
Diane Stemper received her B.F.A. in Printmaking from San Francisco Art Institute and a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from San Francisco State University. Ms. Stemper’s artist books are in artists’ book collections at DAAP Library, University of Cincinnati, Ohio; the Main Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; Lucille Little Fine Arts Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; Special Collections at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Smith Historical Library, Oxford, Ohio and in several private collections. She is a recipient of two Ohio Arts Council’s “Artists and Communities” grants. Recent exhibits include The Naturalists, at the Ohio Art League in Columbus, Ohio; Bookworks 12: Annual Exhibit of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society, at the Main Public Library, Cincinnati, Ohio; San Diego Book Arts Third National Juried Exhibition at the Geisel Library, University of California San Diego; Compendium:Cell, Short Show at the Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, Ohio; 5th International Book & Paper Arts Triennia at the Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts, Illinois; and Master CraftWorks Studio San Giuseppe, Mt. St. Joseph College, Cincinnati, Ohio. She serves on the Board of the Cincinnati Book Arts Society and lives in Southwest Ohio with her family.