Julie Wagner ~ New Mexico

Ebb and Flow
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2007. One-of-a-Kind.

10 x 5.75"; 22 pages. Watercolor, ink, and metal leaf on Arches Cover paper. Metal title plate on front cover. Cloth covered clamshell case by Rosalia Galassi. Paper title on spine.

A delicate visual translation of a Rumi poem: "we are the night ocean filled / with glints of light / we are the space / between the fish and the moon, / while we sit here together"
$1000

Heart Song
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2007. Edition of 100.

3.6 x 4.6"; 8 pages. Created in Photoshop Elements on an iMac computer. Printed using an Epson Stylus Photo 2400 printer. A flutter book of photographs, rubber stamps, and drawings printed on Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper. Cover is paper over boards with a paper title label with line drawing tipped on front board.

Julie Wagner: "Heart Song was created ... using an EKG of a beloved black Lab named Max." Bookended by an image of the dog and what is presumably its grave, Heart Song combines the EKG with simple images and a melancholy two-word chant, from "true heart . stout heart . good heart" to "heart failure . heart break . heart broken." It's a personal story, but one that should resonate with any pet owner.
$48

A Day in the Bosque
By Julie Wagner
2005. Edition of 100.

3.675 x 65" extended. In Leporello binding with cloth covered boards. Inkjet prints on Epson Enhanced Matte Paper. Printed on an Epson R800 printer.

Julie Wagner: "The images in A Day in the Bosque are composed in Photoshop Elements 3 from photographs of the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in San Antonio, New Mexico, topographical maps, and scans of ink drawings done at the site. They trace the life in the refuge through one twenty-four hour period in November, from the cranes waking at dawn, through their flight to the corn fields to eat, and then back to the marshes to sleep through the night on the ponds."
$125

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Chronicle of Sleepless Nights
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2002. One-of-a-Kind.

9.125 x 8.725"; 48 pages. Oil transfer on handmade paper. Japanese stab binding. The cover paper and endsheets are one piece of heavier more textured paper folded with the fold at the fore-edge. If murky has a feel, this might be it.

Julie Wagner: "Based on journals written in the dark, when I wake up at 3 in the morning and can't get back to sleep. It is a record of my worries, obsessions, and fears. Because it was written in the dark, much is illegible and garbled. In it, text becomes texture, and the actual words are piled on top of each other, becoming almost illegible.

"The text and images are done with oil transfer drawings on handmade Japanese paper ... I am interested in the tactile qualities of this book and the way the text moves in and out of legibility."
$600

Palimpsest II
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 1999. One-of-a-Kind.

6.1 x 6.1" closed, opens to 48"; 8 pages. Double-accordion structure. Hand-carved rubber stamps, ink on Nidiggen paper. Pages mounted on Mexican amate paper. Housed in cloth-covered clamshell case by Rosalia Galassi.

Julie Wagner: "Palimpsest II is a book about the goddess culture and how much knowledge of it has been lost. I used a bark paper accordion to refer back to the pre-Conquest codices of Mexico, many of which were burned when the Spanish arrived. It also refers to the practice of the Aztecs, who, when they conquered another people, would burn their books and write new ones, revising history to make themselves preeminent. The images, made of hand-carved rubber stamps, are taken from many different cultures and refer to various goddesses and their attributes. The names are also of goddesses who were once well-known and venerated. The book is rubbed with red pigment, once a common practice at shrines like Catal Hayuk [Neolithic site in modern Turkey]. All the images are overlaid and sometimes erased and smudged to give a sense of time. There is an underlying progression to the images from birth through life to death to rebirth. I wanted this book to have a real sense of age and survival against all odds."
$950

River Riffs
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2009. One-of-a-Kind.

6.125 x 4.125" closed, extends to 48"; 8 folds. Accordion structure. Watercolor on paper with suminagashi. Painted boards with raised illustrated paper title label on front board and a raised illustrated signature-and date-label on back board.
$375

The River's Dance
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2009. One-of-a-Kind.

6.125 x 4.125" closed, extends to 48"; 8 folds. Accordion structure. Watercolor on paper with suminagashi. Painted boards with raised illustrated paper title label on front board and a raised illustrated signature-and date-label on back board.
$375

The River's Song
By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2009. One-of-a-Kind.

t6.125 x 4.875" closed, extends to 48"; 8 folds. Accordion structure. Watercolor on paper with suminagashi. Painted boards with raised illustrated paper title label on front board and a raised illustrated signature-and date-label on back board.
$375