Return to the Sea
Return to the Sea
Artists’ Books, Unique editions of six
Letterpress print, debossed print, India ink, and mineral pigment on Bond paper, Japanese paper (麻紙, Mashi), binding board, and archival glue
Paging: 10 pages, accordion book
5”x 7.5” x .5”
2024
Each book contains the same poem on unique and one-of-a kind works on paper with different placement for types.
Shown below are from unique edition #1 and #2.
Return to the Sea
to the darkness
to the light
to the unknown
to the familiar
to the home
to the womb
to the beginning
to start anew
to start all over
we return to the sea
The poem in Return to the Sea, written by the artist, brings attention to cycles of journey that water and humans go through. The endless cycles of birth and death, constant changes in our lives, and hydrologic cycles for water remind us that we’re always in motion. We reach one state of being or place only to begin another journey. Even when the surface of the lake seems still, water is constantly transforming itself from liquid state to vapor or to solid state as ice. Humans are constantly transforming on the molecular levels as we breathe and age. Water flows through river to the sea, evaporates to form clouds and comes back to earth as rain. Humans were believed to be evolved from sea creatures. The sea is where we were born.
The same poem repeats on the back side of the page on the dark background, creating an endless loop. The dark background evokes deep time and when life was born in the sea billions of years ago.
This artists’ book has six unique editions. The number references the sixth mass extinction that we’re currently in.
Each page uses original artwork as a background and uses different placement of texts on pages. Each book is a unique, one-of-a kind artists’ book with the same poem.
Typeset and printed by the artist at the Reflex Letterpress in Boston.