Close / duck

Close / duck (2025). Corded and twined hanji, inkjet print on hanji. Duck: 8 x 8.6 x 0.25”; book: 3.2 x 1.75 x 0.25” closed, 47.5” wide open. Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection at BIMA.

This is the second of a duck/artists’ book series, where the bird houses the book, and the title plays on the different meanings of “close.” That indicates the different ways the accordion has a relationship with the duck, and the making of the duck is reflected in the narrative of the book. How many times do you have to repeat making a shape before your hands loosen up to allow the material to do what they know it can do? What gets in the way of that relationship between imagining the piece, making it, and its relationship to everything else that came before it?

When you come back to the root
you remember not only to let go,
but to relearn

how to eat
how to sleep
how to work
how to rest
how to be with others
how delicious it is to be alone.

We all arrive, we all return
The circle can be wobbly, even ragged
but it always closes.