The Essay as Artist Book

It’s here! As part of my thesis work, I’m introducing a new open-edition artist book series in which I self-publish each essay (chapter) of my manuscript as it is completed. (Of course, the essays might evolve in later iterations and publications.) These are like chapbooks with self-contained essays, entirely illustrated by yours truly.

I’m using Blurb as my publishing service, because they allow creative freedom through their online process. So, I can make PDFs (from Adobe InDesign) in the book size that I want and then upload them online. For the non-control freak, they have an easily downloaded application called Blurb Booksmart, where you can upload your files.

My Creative Writing thesis is a memoir that explores the relationship between text and image (words, illustrations) in an way that integrates the forms. I’m interested also in representing on the page the way our minds work, and allowing the reader to extract narrative through these sort of fragmented associations.

Or, if you’re not interested in the theoretical-speak, the thesis is a sequence of graphic essays, which are being excerpted into artists’ books here.

So! The book is available through Blurb (via this invitation), or you can buy it on my site and receive a signed copy. With a personalized note, if you like.