Ruth Laxson           

from left to right           

Hussy, 2007           
ink and gouache on Murillo paper, 27.5" x 19.5"           

Jack, 2008
ink and gouache on Murillo paper, 27.5" x 19.5"           

My Sister's House, 2005           
ink and gouache on Murillo paper, 27.5" x 19.5"           

These three works from the “God Dolls” series come from Atlanta artist Ruth Laxson’s 2008 exhibition “Life as a Page.” Laxson, born in 1924 in Roanoke, Alabama, is recognized as one of the nation's preeminent artists’ bookmakers. Her latest book, Ideas of God, is her 30th artists’ book. Laxson’s earliest work—in sound poetry, sculpture, drawings and etchings—was deeply rooted in language as a working material. In the early eighties artists’ books became a natural repository for her ideas and consideration of the contemporary human condition. In the tradition of Concrete Poetry and Visual Writing, Laxson is interested in the materiality of the written and typed word and it’s deployment on the page. Using a variety and mixture of typefaces, she creates visual structures—one might even say drawings—out of words. (Printed Matter Inc, 2008) Automatic writing and pattern poetry are the hallmarks of her artistic style. The artist states “I hope to test the language for meaning and merge text and image in the spirit as the surrealists. But I want to take it a step farther to text as image.” Laxson combines handset type on a Challenger letterpress with handwritten text, drawing, etching, stitching, layering, chine colle, ink, watercolor and more in perfectly hand bound small editions.

In the publication “The Book as Art; Artists’ Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts”, 2007, curator Krystyna Wasserman writes “Artists’ books are a common container for political thought and historical record”. Laxson’s concern with reflecting contemporary society and her interest in humanity is the inspiration for a profound body of work that over 25 years has become a provocative, humorous and wise record of our times. Laxson always speaks her mind on a variety of topical contemporary subjects with “political, social and aesthetic statements which are ‘right on’, apt for today, and apt for tomorrow”. (Judith Hoffman, UMBRELLA 20/2.)

Laxson's work is in the collections of major museums and artists’ book collections in the U.S. and internationally, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Victoria & Albert Museum and Tate Museum, London, the Getty Center Museum, CA and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. In 2003, the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design received a major gift of Laxson's bookmaking process archives and added over 20 of her artists’ books to their collection.

—Edited from an essay by Marcia Wood