"What's Happening With Momma?," an artist's book by the American artist and photographer Clarissa Sligh, gives shape to a memory.
When Sligh was seven, her mother gave birth to her sister in the family's home. The book's form evokes that experience.
First published in 1988, the book is composed of a cardboard sheet cut to resemble the row house where Sligh's family lived, and unfolds accordion style to reveal various views of the house. The exterior side features photographs of the backs of houses, porches, and yards. On the interior, readers encounter Sligh's personal family photographs on each page. Pieces of folded paper that descend like stairs from below each photo contain text describing Sligh's experience of playing outside while her mother was in labor.
A copy of Sligh's book, one of 150 original copies, is featured in "Unfolding Events: Exploring Past and Present in Artists' Books," an exhibition on view at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, part of Yale Library, through March 1.
Artists' books are works of art presented in book form or inspired by books; They commonly feature imagery and text, and draw on structures that, like books, invite exploration.
The exhibition, drawn from the collections of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale and the Beinecke Library, was curated by Jessica Pigza, associate director of arts library special collections, and Bill Landis, teaching and research services librarian. The works on view explore the experiences of marginalized communities and the artists' personal responses to today's world. It also highlights the university's rich artists' book collections housed within the Yale Library, the curators say.
