Book Arts and the Environment

Skillman Library, Corridor
Fall 2014

Mementos of things still present but may soon become past by Elsi Vassdal Ellis, 2013. Image: ©Eli Vassdal Ellis.

Skillman Library highlights a selection of works from Special Collections documenting the creative encounter between book artists, poets, writers, photographers, and the environment. Some works address pressing environmental issues of our time, including the recent loss of bee populations, the impact of genetic engineering on food for human consumption, the effects of hydro-fracking on water supplies, habitat destruction, and species pushed to the brink of extinction. Other works depict the beauty of nature and serve as a reminder of what we stand to lose due to the intentional or unintentional consequences of environmental exploitation and neglect.

This exhibit is presented in conjunction with the 2014 Roethke Festival: Environment and the Arts, September 19-20, and the multi-media exhibition: Requiem, Ectopistes migratorius that marks the centennial of the extinction of North America’s Passenger Pigeon, September 1-December 13 at the Williams Center Art Gallery.