Miriam Schaer ~ Brooklyn, New York

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

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

Batter My Heart: A Wall Street Valentine
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2009. One-of-a-Kind.

10.5 x 12 x 9.5" sculptural book. Materials: currency, bustier, acrylic, pins, dye. Text digitally printed. Housed in cloth covered clamshell box.

Miriam Schaer: "The text is John Donne, the well known verse about faith. I have long thought capitalism is really our national religion, and the economy, truly faith based (a dollar is worth a dollar because we believe it to be so) what happens if that faith starts to falter?"
$1,400

M'Amour
By Miriam Schaer
Brooklyn, New York: Miriam Schaer, 2005. One-of-a-Kind.

20 x 5.5 x 4.5" sculptural book. Materials: opera gloves, linen cord, acrylic, dye. Text digitally printed.

Miriam Schaer: "I use the language of clothing. Frozen and stiff, the garment becomes immobile, as if the wearer evaporated, leaving a only a shell. They become places, enclosures. Upon opening, the ghost of the missing person still remains in the echo of the garment's frozen shape. What remains are fragments, small found objects and books nestled within. They are the distilled essence of the story, the one left behind by the person once living there. "

This glove bookwork — two long and thin buttoned gloves, laced together, their scarlet soiled and streaked, wrinkled, hands open — suggests the desperate burden of love and lovers in a world of clocks that strike twelve and dirt that wins. In the palm of one rests a stressed heart-shaped box containing the words of Ezra Pound's "Cantos, Notes for CXVII": "Why do I love and where are you? That I lost my center fighting the world. The dreams clash and are shattered - and that I tried to make a paradiso terrestre."
$1200

Love and Madness
By 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
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
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
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
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
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