Fragile Morphologies of Pulp Bodies, 2020
Understanding the idea of a body as extraordinarily relative to and inherently part of its environment, I believe that the material process of hand papermaking functions as a mode of visualizing or working through trans-corporeality. In this artist book, I delve into the particulars of water and its significance as it relates to my interest in trans-corporeal bodies; entangled histories from art historical perspectives as they relate to my own creative practice and research interests; and the significance of handmade paper and pulp as a material. Each book of sixty pages includes dozens of images of my process, installation work, microscopy studies, as well as my writing and references.
Special Edition of 20: Printed through magcloud.com online publishing, with the binding resewn; cover and zine insert (3) is made of handmade kozo paper pigmented with soil, with inclusions of mica, rattlesnake master fiber, as well as horse and my own hair. Additional inserts (1, 2, 4) are inkjet printed on French text weight paper. (Images to come!)
Digital Edition (available as a PDF and also through magcloud.com) includes Inserts 1, 2, and 4 as digital inclusions, with a page marker denoting where Insert 3 (handmade zine) would have been placed. This project was partially funded by The Albert P. Weisman Award, a private trust of Columbia College Chicago. The following images are of the cover and spreads contained within the Digital Edition.
Copies of the Digital Edition can be purchased at:
Please contact me directly if you would like to purchase a Special Edition!
10″ x 9″, 40 pages. 2019. Edition of 12. Case binding; hand-made recycled rag paper, hand-made abaca paper, with risography and screen printing. Hand burnt details using a wood burner. Text is a series of poems I wrote about my time taking care of my grandmother before she passed in early 2018.
This was a prototype artist book-turned-amateur-scientist kit I made in 2018. The prototype included the zine Softspots, a number of paper and botanical samples, as well as microscope slides and instructions for creating a microscope at home using the parts of a cheap webcam. All of the materials were housed in a clamshell box with a shelf insert protecting the webcam pieces, slides, and paper contents.
9″ x 6”, 40 pages. Edition of 12. 2018.
Recycled cotton rag and abaca paper, handmade by the artist; with inclusions of mica and the artist’s hair, the pulp was pigmented using several metallic colors. Archival inkjet printing with laser cut details. Handbound using the Simplified binding, with covers wrapped in Canson paper. Photos taken by Meimei Yu.
8” x 5”, 10 pages. Edition of 50. 2018.
Risograph-printed zine. Photos taken by Meimei Yu.
Made in collaboration with students in the class Botanical Alchemy - The Art of Turning Everyday Plants into Paper at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, taught in June 2018 by Melissa Hilliard Potter. We transformed responsibly foraged materials into paper, books, and sculpture, using interdisciplinary research methods to create narrative, woven from shared stories, local histories, and late nights in the studio as well as the library. The book collected sample papers of a variety of fibers, from seaweeds to grasses, and represent the wide range of possibilities springing from the natural environment.
A varied edition of 3 of these sample books was made, with one going to the Haystack Library and two saved for research and documentation purposes.
Books were assembled and covered by Selena Jayne Ingram, using Black Arches paper from the Haystack store. Coptic stitch binding by Melissa Hilliard Potter and Selena Jayne Ingram.
Images by Meimei Yu.
10” x 6'“, 2018. Pages made from cinnamon fern, with botanical specimens encased in mulberry sheets over top. Handbound, Italian long stitch binding. Made while at Haystack Mountain School of Craft, 2018. Photos by Meimei Yu.
17″ x 28″, 2018.
Japanese stab binding; handmade recycled rag paper, injet printing, and laser cut text. First two images by Meimei Yu; the rest of photos taken by J. M. Castillo
10″ x 8″, 2017. One-of-a-kind book.
A few pounds worth of plastic bags, used plastic films, used plastic packaging, and fishing line. Permanent marker text and drawings. Materials were all waste materials from my own artistic and research practices, collected over the period of several months; the text was composed of my own responses and investigations from reading through research papers focused on microplastics and their presence in Lake Michigan. Photos taken by J. M. Castillo
12″ x 9″, 20 pages. 2017.
Simplified binding; hand-made recycled rag paper, inkjet and letterpress printing. Images were sourced from the far corners of my digital archive, while the text was composed from old text message exchanges between myself, family, and friends. Photos taken by J. M. Castillo
16″ x 10″, 44 pages. 2017.
Double-spined, Italian long-stitch binding; handmade recycled rag paper, inkjet printing. A visual investigation into my body post cholecystectomy. Photos taken by J. M. Castillo
This gallery showcases a variety of bookbox projects:
Images 1-4; Bookbox made for The Commons Artist Project: Joan Giroux, ecomonopolies, as part of the Letterbox Challenge. This held a hidden letterbox within the Commons space at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Image by Meimei Yu.
Images 4-6; Bookbox made for The Commons Artist Project: Joan Giroux, ecomonopolies, as part of the Letterbox Challenge. This held a hidden letterbox within one of the cultural centers in Chicago.
Images 7-10: Sample book box and print portfolio case; images by J. M. Castillo.
15″ x 19″, 21 pages. Ed. of 3. 2016.
Modified accordion binding with single-sewn pages, handmade recycled rag paper; screen and ink jet printing.
9″ x 10″, 26 pages. 2015.
Accordion binding, handmade recycled rag paper, digital print.
