Miriam Schaer ~ Brooklyn, New York

Bookworks created from garments
Rules of Engagement Apron series
Small edition books by Miriam Schaer

Hands of Josephus: Part III
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2008. One-of-a-Kind.

6 x 10 x 5"; 462 pages. Appropriated text from the works of Flavius Josephus. Materials: beads, wire hand form. Each page, cut in the shape of a hand, is sewn onto multiple beaded cords, then attached to wire hand forms, which are encrusted with beads. Housed in 8.5 x 13 x 4" linen clamshell box.

Miriam Schaer: "Hands of Josephus is a series of altered books, created from a broken down copy of Flavius Josephus's Twenty books of The Jewish Antiquities, The Life of Josephus and the Jewish Wars. Josephus was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. His works give an important insight into 1st-century Judaism, while raising questions about who owns history. The hand of the victor, it seems, always controls . every version of truth. There are five books in this series, created from the original volumes."
$2,000

Bodies of Knowledge (Male/Female)
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2002. One-of-a-Kind.

Consists of two plastic figures, a male and a female, each with a separate stand. Materials: dye, linen thread, text pages from Atlas of Surgical Operations. Housed in 16 x 14 x 5.5" compartmentalized custom linen clamshell box. Figures and stands store separately.

Female: a clear plastic female body (16 x 7 x 6.5", The Visible Woman by Renwal, maker of plastic model kits) stands in a 5" circular plastic stand. A removable book, 4.5 x 2.5 x.5" with 13 leaves extracted from The Atlas of Surgical Operations, is inset in chest cavity. Cut pieces of other pages from The Atlas . fill the rest of the transparent body.

Male: the same as the Female except the figure is 1 inch taller (i.e. 17") and there are only 10 leaves in the inset book (more brawn, less brain).

Miriam Schaer: "The Atlas of Surgical Operations, which belonged to my late father, is the basis of this work. Filled with detailed drawings and descriptions of surgical procedures, I was able to fill in blanks of my father's mysterious work life. Typical of his generation (and profession), he was removed, yet always present in my life. I came to realize the processes of book binding and surgery have much in common: cutting and sewing to make something whole.

"The chests open to reveal the small books that explore the idea of gender, and incorporate drawings of male and female sex organs from the original Atlas."

$2,000

Rules of Engagement Series (Aprons & Book)

Miriam Schaer, interview from Umbrella: "A few years ago, I started working with hostess aprons. That turned into a 20-piece series called Rules of Engagement in which the aprons became canvasses for transferred portraits of idealized women accompanied by hand-embroidered quotes from Sun Tsu's The Art of War. The first apron in the series reads ,"Good warriors take their stand on ground they cannot lose." Two other aprons read, "Victory cannot be made" and "Strike few with many." The interplay between the aprons' domesticity, the women's faces, and the military epigrams creates an interesting effect."

Rules of Engagement
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2008. Trade Edition.

9 x 7"; 44 pages. Softcover perfect bound.

Miriam Schaer: "Rules of Engagement is an ongoing series of aprons that depict images of idealized women complemented by epigrams from Sun Tsu's The Art of War which are hand embroidered onto each apron by the artist. [I have] produced a trade edition book which has images of each apron in the series with the epigram on the opposite page."
$35

Rules of Engagement: Aprons
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 1996 - 1999. Each unique.

Hostess apron. Sizes vary. Color Xerox, transfer, acrylic medium, hand embroidery.

Aprons available, $900 each:

• #2 Attack where they are unprepared.
       24” x 44”;1996.
• #3 If the enemy opens the door, you must race in.
       23” x 35” ;1996.
• #5 The science of insuring victory is a mysterious secret.
        25” x 37”; 1996.
• #6 The host encounters the guest at the border.
        22” x 37” ; 1997.
• #7 The pliant and weak will conquer the hard and strong. This       is referred to as subtle enlightenment.
        25” x 40” ; 1997.
• #8 In the case of the Firmly Unbending, entice and then seize      them.
       24” x 37”; 1997.
• #11 Resist when surrounded, fight when it cannot be avoided        and obey in extremes.
         24” x 37”; 1998.
• #12 If you want to weaken something you must certainly        strengthen it.
         24” x 37”; 1998.
• #14 Victory can be made.
         36” x 23” 1999.
• #15 Strike few with many.
         27” x 18” 1999.
• #16 Nothing is harder than armed struggle
         37” x 21”; 1999.
• #17 Use anger to throw them into disarray.
         56” x 19”; 1999.
• #18 The best of plans is one that is unknown.
         32” x 21”; 1999.
• #19 Do not press a desperate enemy.
         31” x 22”; 1999.

Click individual image to enlarge

           
Apron #2                                    Apron #3

            
Apron #5                                    Apron #6

             
Apron #7                                       Apron #8

             
Apron #11                              Apron #12

             
Apron #14                                       Apron #15

             
Apron #16                                       Apron #17

              
Apron #18                                  Apron #19

Golden Apples
By Miriam Schaer
with text by W. B. Yeats
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2005. One-of-a-Kind.

7 x 23 x 4" sculpture using opera gloves. Attached to the palm of the left hand a 2 x 1.75", 9-page miniature book, an accordion structure in apple-shaped pages on which is the digitally printed W. B. Yeats' text, an excerpt from "The Song of the Wandering Aengus." Sculpture housed in linen clamshell box.

Miriam Schaer: "Golden Apples ponders the quest for love. It was created originally for the installation Chapel of Uncommon Prayer. Created entirely of books and book objects using hand shapes and gloves, created using
traditional book binding techniques in a non-traditional way, the exhibition explores the personal relationship to prayer and devotion, in a world with increasingly difficult, often unanswerable questions."

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands.
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

$900

One Heart
By Miriam Schaer
poem by Emily Dickinson
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2004. One-of-a-Kind.

9.75 x 16 x 7.75" sculptural book. Girdle book with hand-shaped book (4 x 6", 14 pages, combination codex and accordion structure) inset. Materials: girdle, acrylic, silk, Indian hand made paper. Housed in linen clamshell box.

Text is a poem by Emily Dickinson, "If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking," as it appeared in The Complete Poems (Boston, 1924).

Miriam Schaer: "One Heart was created for Six Wives for the Brothers Grimm, six dioramas exploring themes raised by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm and other sources of fairy or folk tales at Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. Designed for Brooklyn's more urban, plural environment, the panels depict sculptural figures I created by applying traditional and non-traditional book-binding techniques to pigment-stiffened articles of clothing embedded with objects. Many of the figures open to reveal one-of-a-kind books and additional objects. Serving as the characters' inner voices, the hand-made books contain excerpts from Emily Dickinson poems about the personal tragedies, usually romantic, people secretly endure. The lettering in the text is all hand-cut, reflecting the fragility of their expressions."

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

$1,400

Love and Madness
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2000. One-of-a-Kind.

11.5 x 16 x 9” closed; 11.5 x 17 x 9” opened. Uses a woman’s girdle for book structure. 3.5 x 6 x 2” book inset. Mixed media with girdle, acrylic, ink, dye, chord, linen thread, silk. Inset heart-shaped book sewn on multiple cords, interior text hand-lettered Nietzsche quotation on handmade Tibetan paper.

Miriam Schaer: “Love and Madness is a meditation on Nietzsche’s famous quote about the complexities of relationships. Bound in a heart shaped book, on hyper-packed cords, the book, which cannot break free from the bustier where it is housed, emphasizes the twists and turns that exist in all intimate relationships.”
$1,200

Rest Stops
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 1996. One-of-a-Kind.

5 x 16 x 2" Materials used sock dryers, silk, acrylic, xerox transfer, and printed matter.

Driving directions as a metaphor for life provide the text in this leg-shaped book created with antique wood sock dryers. The hand-cut text is accompanied by vintage images of an idealized past.
$800

We Are Happy to Serve You
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 1996. Edition of 8

19.25 x 29" 26 pages. Printed gum bichromate on hand cut pages. Bound with a hostess apron.

Subject of this book is the artist's four day career as a waitress. Her waitressing career began immediately after graduation from art school. Includes her reflection on the merits of following one's heart's desire and "ceasing to serve."
$700 (Last Copy)

Click image to enlarge

The Posture Queen
By Mary Florio
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2005. Edition of 25.

6 x 5 x .5" pamphlet bound in ribbon-tied enclosure. Digitally printed with an Epson 2200 printer using archival ink on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Duo. Type used Futura and Edwardian Script.

The All Girl's Assembly held each year during Miriam Schaer's Junior High School years in Kenmore, New York, outside of Buffalo inspired New Jersey poet Mary Florio's poem. Based on Schaer's memories and memorabilia from that time, Florio creates a new sort of Posture Queen, who stands straight, even under the most trying circumstances.
$85

Adjusting For The Moon
By Miriam Schaer with Stan Pinkwas
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2003. Edition of 15.

29 x 7.5" open. Ink jet on hand-painted accordion pages with digitally printed slipcase and ribbon pull.

This is an edition version of Schaer's book that is in the center of her sculptural piece "Altars of the Invisible." This small book illuminates the tensions in personal relationships through the metaphor of early navigation.
$100

Zelda Reflects
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 1994. Open Edition

3" x 4" 18 pages including cover. Printed offset. Double o-wire binding. Printed offset on multicolored mylar card stock. Signed but unnumbered.

Filled with images of bountiful women from vintage French postcard, and wise words from well-known people. Typeset backwards in mirror type. The pages must be read in the reflection which helps our "Zelda" to reflect, and ponder her options, as she looks back on her year.
$50 (Last two copies)