RiTUAL. A ceremonial act ~ Rites used in the course of worship ~ The performance of ceremonial acts ~ The prescribed form of conducting the ceremony ~ A method of procedure that is followed without variation ~ performance with gestures, words, and objects, often in a sequestered place.

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Laura Holland

I am freelance writer in western Massachusetts, and I teach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For over eight years, I wrote weekly art reviews for the Valley Advocate Newspapers, and since 2006, I write a monthly column on visual art for Preview Massachusetts Magazine. I began making artist books ten years ago because I wanted to bring projects combining text and images into classes for studio art majors. Once I began making books, I was totally hooked. My day jobs depend heavily on words, so my artist books tend to go lightly on text and instead emphasize telling a story through images. I have had several one-person exhibitions, and my work has been included in group shows in the U.S. and, internationally, in Berlin and in Lviv, Ukraine.

Re: Ritual

In this single-sheet book, made on an 11 by 11 inch sheet of black paper, I was interested in the repeated steps that define a ritual. Re-call, re-peat, re-invent seemed to define the ritual process, so I used the words to re-assemble a ritual. I cut the letters out of sheets of ivory paper, emphasizing the repeated "re" of the process, and then glued the words on the black paper using acrylic matte medium. The photograph shows the single-sheet book unfolded, but it folds into an 8-page booklet.

Artwork in Ritual Single-sheet book show (2013)

Posing Rituals

Re: Ritual

Ritual Manipulation (one black rectangle) by Laura Holland

Ritual Manipulation (one black rectangle)

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Re: Ritual

Artwork in Ritual Single-sheet book show (2013)