An Artist's Book

I had long been interested in handmade books, and had completed a couple of rude attempts, when in January, 2020, I enrolled with a fellow artist and dear friend in a college-level book making class. Returning to campus after decades was intimidating and exhilarating in equal measure. Ginger and I dived in among students young enough to be our grandchildren and quickly found ourselves completely at home. On March 4, as we left class with a week of Spring Break ahead of us and our most challenging assignment yet in hand, we were completely in our element. We had no idea we would never meet as a class in person again. Before Spring Break ended, a pandemic had been declared and we were in lockdown. I was a mad book making fool during the subsequent months. Honing my new skills kept me sane as I weathered the isolation.

Fast forward a year, and I began to hear about these things called NFTs. As a photographer, digital methods had always been a part of my workflow, but primarily as a means to a physical end. My practice included both analog and digital photography as well as all sorts of mixed media. I painted, I sewed, I hand printed, I put Polaroids in the microwave - you name it, I was generally willing to see where it might take me. As my interest in NFTs grew, I became more and more interested in combining my physical processes with digital tools to make digitally native art. Photographs were easy, but other aspects of my practice proved elusive. There was something important lost in translation.

I am now two years and more into my NFT journey, and despite having explored a lot of corners of this space, learned enough to feel that I should have a graduate degree, and gained skills in a number of new tools, some of those original ideas are as elusive as ever. The closest I have gotten so far to a digital artist book are my short videos (see them at https://teia.art/wandaOliverArt). I am proud of that work, but it doesn't quite have the sensory "bookness" that I'm looking for - a quality that I can't really describe but that I am convinced I will know when it shows up.

So I welcome fx(Text) with an open heart, a mind full of questions, and a spirit ready to tackle a new frontier. Thinking of how the generative nature of fx(Hash), the possibility that code provides for greater immersion and interactivity, and the embrace of text-based art inherent in the very existence of fx(Text), might collide and breed, I can only imagine the places we are going to go. Actually, I probably can't imagine it - I am ready for my mind to be blown.