Alice Simpson ~ New York

The Dolphins
By Sir Stephen Spender
New York: Alice Simpson, 2008. One-of-a-Kind.

6 x 20" tunnel book structure. Watercolor plus tissue collage. Gate-fold front board.

Sir Stephen Spender's poem "Dolphins" inspired Alice Simpson's pop-up picture of carefree swimmers playing with dolphins.

Happy, they leap
Out of the surface
Of waves reflecting
The sun fragmented
To broken glass
By the stiff breeze...

The dolphins write such
Ideograms: With power to wake
Me prisoned in My human speech
They sign: 'I AM!'

$1,500

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MISS ROJ
By Alice Simpson
2007. One of a kind.

13.5 x 6 x 3.5" closed, extends to 76" accordion structure. Pages Arches
black paper with gouache and leather. Bound in Japanese paper and leather.
Housed in lined leather box by Carolyn Chadwick.

Alice Simpson: "'The Gospel According To Miss Roj' is one of the eleven
vignettes...in Kentucky-born director, writer, and producer George C.
Wolfe's [play], The Colored Museum [1986]. The vignette features a feisty
'snap' drag queen, Miss Roj, who rages against urban life, exploitation, and indifference."

This book excerpts words from Wolfe's play and comes paired with an original sculpture by Simpson.

The sculpture: MISS ROJ
By Alice Simpson
2007. One of a kind.

19(h) x 15(w) x 13(d)" terracotta sculpture, hand-built with 24k gold lustre, oxide, underglaze, rhinestones, and painted leather.

Book and sculpture created for the Kentucky Museum's "Visions and Voices: Art Inspired by Kentucky Poetry, Prose and Songwriting."
$10,000 (Book and sculpture)

Pandora's Box
By Alice Simpson
New York: Alice Simpson, 2005. One-of-a-Kind.

13 x 10 x 4" footed box. Found objects with original India ink erotica. Box contains three objects which can be displayed outside of the box. 1) 6 x 9 x 2" shadow box with female nude photo behind painted metal fan-like object. 2) 9 x 2.2 x 1.75" footed box with opening in lid to view female nude emerging from bath. 3) 5.25 x 3.5 x 2.5" lidded box with 4" handle containing Pandora's Box (3.1 x 4.6" 8-pages accordion book with three double-page erotic images painted by the artist).

Pandora's box is played out (played with?) on multiple levels: a celebration of the life-enhancing elements of women.
$2,500

Alphabet
By Alice Simpson
Edition of 4.

3.1 x 3.1 x .5" opens to 43", an accordion fold book. Digital prints tipped in on Chapin Twinrocker's handmade paper. Includes Simpson's pastepapers, a resin molded cherub, Swarovski amber crystal beads on gold silk thread.

The prints for this alphabet are from original cherub drawings that the artist has developed over the past twenty years. The original pen and walnut ink drawings are six by six inches on Stonehenge paper and based on a seventeenth century European style alphabet.
$400

Bird
By Pablo Neruda
2001. One-of-a-Kind.

7.5 x 8 x 30" open. Accordion structure with paper covered boards. Includes a E. Muybridge photo collage and gel medium. Calligraphy in walnut ink by artist on handmade papers.

Simpson uses Muybridge's photographs of a body in motion to accompany Neruda's poetry. "I saw how wings worked..."
$600

One for the Book:
Hal Sherman Eccentric Dancer Vaudeville Star
By Alice Simpson
2005. Edition of 30.

5.5 x 5.5" opens to 27.5". Accordion-fold. Offset printed in LunalTC Bold typeface on 80 lb Monadnock Silk Cover. Original caricatures by artist based on illustrations by Hynes that appeared in London's The Bystander in 1926. Text from 1928 Parisian review translated by Elizabeth Blackert. Includes 1939 Vitaphone film clip “One for the Book" on DVD produced by Michael Simpson (Dustbrothers). Housed in an origami folded sleeve.

Alice Simpson: "My father, Hal Sherman, (1897-1985) was an internationally renowned, rubber-legged 'eccentric' vaudeville dancer in the 1920s through the early 1940s and was often compared to Charlie Chaplin. The tradition of eccentric dancers is as old as Pantomime & the Commedia dell’Arte and firmly rooted in the French & English Music Hall. The 'Moonwalk' is an eccentric dance step, which he danced in the 1920s.

“Much adored by Europeans, including the Prince of Wales…with gold headed walking stick, three-piece suits, two Russian borzois and touring car - he was quite the dandy. Frequently a headliner at London's Piccadilly and Kit-Cat Club, he spent late hours at Maxim's. A Broadway sensation in ‘hell-za-poppin,' with top billing, he was the focus of an Al Hirschfeld caricature which appeared in the NY Times in the 1940s.

“Growing up after vaudeville, I'd never seen my father dance anywhere other than in our living room. Therefore, it was thrilling several years ago to come across the 1939 Vitaphone film 'one for the book,' as part of a documentary about 'eccentric' dancers.”
$100

Marco
By Alice Simpson
New York: Alice Simpson, 2000. One-of-a-Kind.

12 x 5.25" closed; extends to 24". Triple-layer accordion fold. Mixed media and calligraphy. Paper covered boards with title in calligraphy on front board. Text in English and Spanish.

Marco is based on a character from the artist's novel, Ballroom.

Alice Simpson: "Ballroom, a hand painted artist book with two editions and cut out pages of dancers, was the forerunner of the novel. In a first attempt at writing, I created five dark characters who danced at a Ballroom on Sunday nights.... Several years later I wrote a complete novel, Ballroom, based on those five characters….

"Marco is one of the characters in [the novel]. Marco has never missed a Sunday night dance in twenty years and has never told anyone at the ballroom his last name. He wouldn't want any of the women he dances with, particularly Sarah Dreyfus, to know that he still lives with his mother. He works at the telephone company and sometimes late at night makes obscene phone calls to the women he dances with. Marco has plans, which he never accomplishes, and lives his life in a steady 3/4 time."

Text: "Counting out the rhythms in his head Marco dreamed his life in 3/4 time."
$1,500

Hip Hop
By Alice Simpson
1996. One-of-a-Kind.

15 x 13.5 x 31" tri-fold hand painted. Text by Alice Simpson.

One of Alice Simpson's interests in recent years has become a fascination with the hip hop craze. She did a series of sculptures called "Urban Motion" in which the movements of this modern music wave are captured. In late 2004 her work was exhibited at the Interchurch Center Treasure Room Gallery in New York City.

              I danced with
              Georgia O'Keefe last night,
              black babushkas on our heads.
              We climbed over lofty rocks
              to a place amongst skulls and
              pink Hibiscus
              where we could
                     Hip Hop
                     to howling wolves
                     in wedding attire.
$1,400

If It Ain't Got That Swing!
By Alice Simpson
2000. Edition of 4.

11 x 3.5 x .5" accordion fold with offset images from "A Midsummer Night Swing!" Uses handmade papers, beads, hand painted details.

Another of Simpson's colorful pieces combining her love of bookmaking with her love of dance.
$425

Alice Simpson Out of Print Title:
• I Ask My Mother to Sing
• Tango Bar 2001