Carolyn Berry

Carolyn Berry ~ California

Carolyn Berry: "I am not a novice at artists' books as I started doing them in the 60's. We moved from the Peninsula to upstate New York. As there used to be many presses in upstate NY there were many books, very cheap. Library sales had old books leather covered for $1. If they didn't sell they went to a big bonfire at the dump. I started writing in them, cutting out racist and sexist lines and coloring the spaces in. I needed a light medium as I couldn't frame or box large paintings for shows. They were an immediate hit with almost everybody."

Bookworks around historical personalities collaged by Carolyn Berry

Art & Poetry Book I By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 2009. One-of-a-Kind. 6.25 x 8"; 12 pages. Four laser-copied poems tipped in. Each poem paired with a color copy of either a watercolor or a pencil-on-clay-board illustration. Lace-like end papers. Pamphlet construction with sewn binding. Original illustration (signed) tipped on front cover. Four poems, two by Sara Teasdale and two by Wendell Berry, illustrated by the artist. Carolyn Berry: "Illustrations follow the poem in an abstract way. I love painting and love reading poetry and thought I would try combining them in a small book with new material." $400	Click image for more


Berry Book #14 In Monterrey Bay By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, (1994)-2010. One-of-a-Kind. 6 x 9 x 3.75"; 92 pages. Collage with appropriated text pages, photographs, paint, and handwritten text. Red calico cloth-covered boards. Front board decorated with a red-and-green sequined strawberry. Boards edged in satin ribbon with green plastic berries dangling from the ribbon. White plastic berry buttons attached to board edges as well as seashell danglies on back board edges. White cloth bookmark flecked with strawberries laid in. This altered or appropriated book about (surely) everything and anything to do with berries uses Bittersweet (New York, 1948) by Martha Bernhart Harper with decorations by Erick Berry as a base. Elaborate collage: images and text snippets layered and reworked. Book begun in 1994, added to in 1995 and 2006, and finished in 2010. $800	Click image for more


The Everyday Devil #13 By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 2010. One-of-a-Kind. 6.75 x 5.25 x 2.25"; 120 pages. Cloth-covered boards (which is all you can identify of the original book 'French, Wit, Wisdom, & Wickedness) is the base for this book of collage. One in a series of collaged books featuring devils of all shapes and sizes. Each book in the series is unique, a mixture of images and text snippets layered and reworked, all about devilish things. This one, #13, was begun in 1989, added to in 1993, and completed in 2010. $700	Click image for more


Blind Pony By Carolyn Berry New York: Carolyn Berry, circa 1970. One-of-a-Kind. 4 x 6.25" ; 61 pages. Altered book. Collage. The basic book could be a cheap traveler's diary: thin imitation leather, badly scuffed and tattered. The early history of Blind Pony, Missouri. Elaborate collage: journal entries and quotations from settlers (copied in Berry's hand), text snippets from history books and newspapers, and images from various unnamed sources — all accented with splashes of watercolor. $500	Click image for more


Collage books around personalities of history Carolyn Berry: "A unique form I developed is collaged books, some of which are autobiographical. These are constructed from old school books I found that were dog-eared, mice-nibbled, and scribbled on and colored-in by children. Some books had been covered with cloth by mothers trying to save the book from another child in the family. The collaged book is a perfect medium for re-creating trips, allowing the artist to utilize collected and treasured scraps: labels, photos, stickers."

Rauschenberg Volume I By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 2010. One-of-a-Kind. 3.25 x 9 x 3"; 118 pages. Collage. Boards covered in quilt pieces. Using a drawing book as her base Carolyn Berry pays homage to Robert Rauschenberg (1925 - 2008) through elaborate collages. The pages are filled with articles, interviews, and information about or related to Rauschenberg and his art. Many references are esoteric. For example, the following is handwritten on this book's first page: "This list was erased by myself Carolyn Barry. This book used to be a drawing book [undecipherable] I say so…." This is (perhaps) an allusion to Rauschenberg's entry in the 1961 exhibition at Galerie Iris Clert for which artists were asked to submit a portrait of Clert. Rauschenberg sent a telegram: "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so." $1,000	Click image for more


food & flower By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 2004, 2008. One-of-a-Kind. 5 x 7"; 70 pages. Altered book: Russian text. Collage. Carolyn Berry: "First of all I have no idea what this original book is about.... It's in Russian & has pictures of libraries & other places that remind me of Anna Akhmatova [the pen name of Anna Andreevna Gorenko, Russian poet] working, translating, trying to survive." $500	Click image for more


The Elusive Giorgione By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 2008. One-of-a-Kind. 5 x 6.5"; 56 pages. Altered book. Collage. Hand-written text: "When did I first meet Giorgione? Art History? A book I picked up somewhere? At home in Men & Art (our early art book which contained no women artist)? In 1968 or so I tried to get a Guggenheim to go around looking at Giorgiones & making 'afters.' "I love Giorgione's open, direct gaze that has so much subtlety hidden in the depths. When he lived in New York & I got in to the Museums once in a while the first thing I did at the Met was go upstairs & go to the Giorgiones & sit in front of it - it was very peaceful, exciting and satisfying. It was going to see someone I loved - the turn of his shoulder to the side was incredible - I believe I sketched him, certainly went up close & looked & looked, said hello. Sat back down & gazed. Visited. "Some people say that the Metropolitan doesn't have a Giorgione." $500	Click image for more


Altered books by Berry no longer available (sold):

Berry Book By Carolyn Berry Monterrey, California: Carolyn Berry, 1987. One-of-a-Kind. 5 x 7"; 92 pages. Altered book. Cloth-covered boards with 30 berry-like buttons on front cover. Collage. Elaborate collage: images and text snippets layered and reworked. All about berries. (SOLD)	Click image more

Page last update: 09.05.10