S L Norquay

This review was in the Santa Barbara NewsPress. The reviewer got one thing wrong about my books. The book with the QR codes is not the Exquisite Corpse book, but a dos-a-dos book about travel. I am grateful to get the attention, in any case.

Here is an excerpt:

‘ReOpening the Book’
 by Josef Woodard

Solvang’s Elverhøj Museum of History and Art hosts ‘ReOpening the Book,’ a second, larger and more diverse group exhibition of the loosely-defined medium of book art.

It can safely be reported that, with the current exhibition at Solvang’s picturesque and often thought- provocative Elverhøj Museum of History and Art, the work on view speaks for itself on its own terms, but often by using — and creatively abusing — words as expressive agent, or as expressive silly putty. Yes, book art is in the house.

With the inviting new book art show “ReOpening the Book,” as with last year’s Arts Fund Gallery show “Bridging Fine Art with Book, Arts and Literature,” (which included many of the artists seen in Solvang), we get the distinct impression that the open-ended medium of book art is as irreducibly eclectic as any known medium. Elements of collage, word-image play, found object reinvention, and linguistic ploys can be involved.

Said “language” sourcebook even includes the contemporary, code-based digital language of QCR code images, in Sara Norquay’s “interactive artist book” and clever mutant travelogue project “Your Exquisite Corpse/Votre Cadavre Exquis.” It requires a smart phone and a QCR-reading app to fully engage with. Ms. Norquay’s title and interactive scheme nods to the Dadaist game invented by absurdist deity Marcel DuChamp, whose quote “it’s an artist’s book if the artists says it is” is displayed like a mantra in the gallery.

The whole review is here:

SB NewsPress ART REVIEW

The exhibition runs March 29 to May 10. It’s so great to see 206 people I know altogether in one room. Beautifully hung by Ruta. Also nice to see some of the people in person at the opening.

Jill Thomson asked me to join her in showing 6 of my new coat prints for the month of March. I just couldn’t say no. It pushed me to further my ideas about the work. Thank you, Jill!

I am undecided about this round. Perhaps they will grow on me.