Books as Art

Eureka Books looks at the big picture

(Jan. 31, 2008) If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the 15 years Eureka’s Arts Alive! has been in existence, it’s that some of the most interesting art is often found in unexpected places. I considered this fact as Scott Brown led me toward the back of Eureka Books, weaving his way through shelves, tables, chairs and boxes overflowing with books and prints and pamphlets. When we got to an area with a vague, employee-only feel, Brown ducked around a corner and into a book-lined niche. “Here they are,” he said.

The hand-made books — featuring a wide array of whimsical forms — were placed on the shelves in tidy rows, wrapped and tagged in an orderly fashion. They looked starkly contemporary among the old books and ephemera filling the 1879 mint-green Victorian storefront, but not necessarily out of place.

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“Can we pick them up?” I asked.

Brown nodded. “With art books, there’s meant to be a personal, direct interaction between the artist and the viewer,” he said. He handed me a three-dimensional, pastel-colored shoe. It was a loafer, with pages of text fastened on with a shoestring. “This one is called ‚ÄòThere was an Old Woman,’ by Dorothy Swendeman,” he said.

I held the shoe in the palm of my hand, like a butterfly, studying the craftsmanship from every angle. This was a book?

“A lot of the books from NORBAG’s members look more like paper sculptures than traditional books, but they’re based on very old styles of bookmaking that the artists have reinterpreted and reimagined,” Brown explained.

NORBAG — the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild — is the group of artists Brown chose to feature for Eureka Books’ “Grand Re-opening Celebration” during Arts Alive!, on Feb. 2. The NORBAG exhibit fits in with the bookstore’s long term “big picture” for Arts Alive!, which will be a focus on art exhibits with book-related themes.

Brown and his wife, local author, Journal columnist and painter Amy Stewart, purchased Eureka Books back in December along with fellow book-lovers Jack and Peggy Irvine (also an artist). Since then they’ve been making the 20-year old bookstore their own, introducing a fresh vision and new ideas, including an Arts Alive! presence.

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