Karen Hanmer~ Illinois

The Changing World of Information Technology
The Midwest
The United States and Political History
Personal History Works
The World of Flight

Flag Book Model Set
By Karen Hanmer
2005. Edition of 20.

Each book 8 x 20 x 3” extended; 5 x 8 x .5" closed. Pigment inkjet prints. Vintage FSA photo of woman at work in an aviation plant during WWII by Alfred T. Palmer.

Karen Hanmer: “Created for artists’ Bonefolder online Book Arts journal article on flag books, this set includes two different styles of flag book, and comes packaged with a hard copy of the article and a CD with a digital copy for reproduction and distribution to students.”
$400

The Spectrum A to Z
By Karen Hanmer
2003. Edition of 20

5 x 5 x 18". Pigment inkjet prints. Tunnel book with letters of the alphabet colored to run through the spectrum and back.

Karen Hanmer: "Most years Chicago Hand Bookbinders members make alphabet books as a fund raising project to benefit a local book arts institution. 'The Spectrum A to Z' and 'Patriot Alphabet' were first created for this purpose, then improved and editioned. "The Spectrum A to Z "artists’ proof was a birthday present for my husband, who likes bright colors, from his wife, who prefers black."
$325

All Shook Up
By Karen Hanmer
Illinois: 1999. Edition of 20.

8 x 19 x 3" fully open. Pigment inkjet prints in flag book construction. Black velvet finish paper cover.

A tribute to the King of Rock 'n Roll, Elvis Presley. Elvis' famous smile printed across one set of 'pages' with his birthplace in Tupelo and a list of his best known songs on reverse flags.
$325

Deal Me In, Mona
By Karen Hanmer
Chicago, Illinois: 1999. Edition of 20.

8 x 19 x 3" fully open. Pigment inkjet prints in flag book construction.

Contrasts two more or less iconic paintings of Western Art: DaVinci's Mona Lisa and Coolidge's Waterloo (a Poker Dogs painting). High brow meets low brow.
$325

Big Blue
By Karen Hanmer
2006. Edition of 100.

3.25 x 7.5" Laser print on polyester film, computer punch card.

Another in Hanmer's series of works on computer history in the United States. This work has a National Archives image of 1970s era computer room overlaid on an IBM punch card.
$10

I Remember My First
By Karen Hanmer
2003. Edition of 100.

8.75 x 7.5" Inkjet prints on green bar computer paper. Side-sewn with green thread, utilizing pre-punched holes. Issued in a phase wrapper made of heavy, green map folder stock, fastened with velcro and stamped with author's name and address.

Entering the world of Information Technology using quotes from interviews with software engineers exploring how they became interested in working with computers and what they still find compelling about software, hardware and
the act of programming.
$75

Beaut.E(Code)
By Karen Hanmer
2002. Open Edition.

3.25 x 7.25" Text keypunched onto computer cards, "bound" with custom printed rubber band.The wonderful world of computer technology is documented through interviews conducted with computer software developers exploring the aesthetic values in, and their fond feelings for computer programming.
$30

Prairie
By Karen Hanmer
2006. Edition of 100.

6 x 3" closed; 8 x 15 x 2.5" open. Pigment inkjet prints. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron.

Another work by Hanmer inspired by Willa Cather's "My Antonia." Quote from the text printed on one side: "I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping . . ."
$30

Big River
By Karen Hanmer
2004. Edition of 20.

10.75 x 8.75 x 1.25" Uses pigment inkjet prints, binders' board, plexiglass, ball bearings.Like the child’s pocket game, the viewer maneuvers the box to get each of the balls into a divot corresponding to a city mentioned in the Johnny Cash song, Big River, where the lovesick narrator chases his woman down the Mississippi River, missing her at every port.
$400

Flip Farm
By Karen Hanmer
2002. Edition of 100.

2 x 3.5 x.5" flipbook with pigment inkjet prints.

The Flip book simulates the experience of driving past a field of corn.
$25

Decoration
By Karen Hanmer
2006. Edition of 25.

5 x 10.5" closed; fully extended 9' when removed from dust jacket. Accordion book. Pigment inkjet prints.Vintage photographs represent the accomplishments and values of a mid century husband and wife.

Karen Hanmer: "Even before my father died it bothered me that my mother’s obituary said almost nothing – only that she went to high school and left Minnesota, then died leaving two children. I wanted to make a tribute to what she did and who she was for 46 years. When my father died, his obituary was long and detailed with his accomplishments and involvement in the community. Decoration includes images of my father’s actual medals and certificates of accomplishment, plus images representing what was important to my mother – things she would have gotten medals and certificates for had such honors existed."
$325

Reunion
By Karen Hanmer
2006. Edition of 25.

7 X 7.5". Sewn boards binding. Pigment inkjet prints, silk brocade, goatskin. Vintage photographs and brief text document a couple’s many separations and ultimate reunion.

Karen Hanmer: "When my father died I became very intrigued with and comforted by the idea that after a 34 year separation, he and my mother were now reunited. As I looked at family photographs, spoke to their old Navy friends, and made a timetable of their life together, I found that they were often separated even during their 19 years together. Reunion explores their many separations, reunions, and final union."
$425

Bequest
By Karen Hanmer
2001. Edition of 20.

8 x 19 x 3 " open; 8 x 4 5/8 x.75 closed. A flag book with pigment inkjet prints.Text outlines the brief history of an immigrant farming family and lists the first names of three generations.

Included in the exhibit The Art of the Book ’03 organized by The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG) that traveled across Canada 2003-2005.
$375

Ann Black
By Karen Hanmer
1999. Edition of 20.

6.5 x 20 x 3" open. Archival inkjet print.

Text tells the story of a 1930’s small town school teacher and her philandering boyfriend. Hanmer created this book from a letter her husband's aunt wrote her when Karen asked about the woman in an old photo.
$250

Letter Home
By Karen Hanmer
2004. Edition of 20.

8 x 19 x 3" open. 8 x 5.6 " closed. Flag book with inkjet prints.

A young Navy wife's letter written from Europe to her family on the farm.

Max Yela, Head, Special Collections, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee: "The flag book, like other dynamic book structures, has the unfortunate potential to overwhelm content and artistic intent. Not so for Karen Hanmer’s flag book Letter Home. Here the book’s structure and its exterior and interior environments are fully integrated with content to embody and illuminate meaning. Using family photographs and dual, private voices –  a letter to family and an interior commentary – Hanmer creates a visual narrative/diorama of Midwestern roots, geographic displacement, familial relationships, personal and interpersonal anxieties, and 1950s cultural transition. The work evokes emotions of longing and loss without being sentimental, as well as hope for the future that is flavored with Midwestern pragmatism. The revelatory quality of Hanmer’s flag book is quite appropriate to its content, creating a satisfying and multi-layered experience for the viewer."
$375

Crystals
By Karen Hanmer
2000. Edition of 20.

7 x 14 x 7" Carousel structure with archival inkjet prints.

Tells the story of the sensuous pleasures of a the straight-laced child’s twilight summer walk to the candy store to purchase caramel “bull’s eyes,” in the company of the free-wheeling children from the family next door.
$450

Succession
By Karen Hanmer
2002. Edition of 20.

7 x 5" closed. Archival pigment inkjet prints using a flag book structure.

Suggests the history of a large, immigrant farming family over a 60 year span.
$375

House of Cards
By Karen Hanmer
Glenview, Illinois: Karen Hanmer, 2007. Edition of 30.

20.5 x 3.5 x .25" extended; 2.5 x 3.5 x 1.25 closed. Jacob’s Ladder: Pigment inkjet prints, binders’ board, polypropylene. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron.

Exactly what we’ve come to expect of Karen Hanmer’s work: structure and content in lockstep, meticulous craft, pointed and unsubtle satire eliciting immediate visceral response. Again she reminds us that emotional impact doesn’t depend on complexity. The only incongruity is emotional: the books reference nursery rhymes, toys, and the innocence of children; the minimal text of House of Cards – from Abu Ghraib to Paul Wolfowitz – elicits from at least one reader tears of loss and frustration.

Karen Hanmer: "An image of the White House deconstructs as text on reverse documents blunders and evil-doings since the 2001 inauguration."
$200

The House George Built
By Karen Hanmer
Glenview, Illinois: Karen Hanmer, 2007. Edition of 100.

2.5 x 4.5 x.75”; 71 pages. Flipbook with pigment inkjet prints. Perfect bound. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron.

Not-so-subtle political comment. If only it were just a child’s game.

Karen Hanmer: "An image of the White House deconstructs to represent blunders and evil-doings since the 2001 inauguration."
$25

3.5 x 2.5 x .5". Designed as a deck of cards in card case with 52 playing cards.

Inspired by decks of playing cards portraying villains and heroes from Operation Iraqi Freedom. This deck pictures 52 different Sports Utility Vehicles.
$50

Faster Higher Further First: a sampler of women aviators
By Karen Hanmer
2005. Edition of 50.

8 x 56 x 5” open; 8 x 2.5 x .5” closed. Pigment inkjet prints.

An accordion format pop-up book with vintage photographs of 14 women aviators from the beginnings of powered flight until the present. Brief text lists the accomplishments of each woman.
$250

Destination Moon
By Karen Hanmer
2003. Edition of 20

7 x 5 x .75" closed; 7 x 5 x26" open. Flag book with archival pigment inkjet prints. Created for the Guild of Bookworkers traveling exhibition In Flight (2003-2005)

Archival photographs and documents pertaining to the Apollo Manned Space program contrast John F. Kennedy's "Man on the Moon by the end of the decade" speech with Roy Alfred and Marvin Fisher's whimsical song (popularized by Dinah Washington), Destination Moon, about a couple's trip to the moon.
$425 (Last two copies)

They All Laughed
By Karen Hanmer
2002. Edition of 20.

7 x 5 x .75" closed; 7 x 5 x26" open. Flag book with archival pigment inkjet prints.

Photographs and archival documents pertaining to the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight, contrasted with the Gershwin song, They All Laughed, that lists a number of screwball ideas for inventions that became the foundation of modern society.
$375

Secrets of Flight
By Karen Hanmer
2004. Edition of 30.

7 x 26 x 5" open; 7 x 5 x .75" closed. Archival inkjet prints.

Photographs and archival documents pertaining to the Wright Brothers' first manned, powered flight.
$375