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READ
JULIE CHEN S EXQUISITE BOOKS,
BETWEEN
START BT GETTING TOUR HANDS ON ONE.
THE LINES
STO R Y BY
Joyce Lovelace
P O R T R A IT BY
Toby Burditt
BOOK PH O TO G R A PH Y BY
Sibila Savage
“ o n e o f t h e s e c r e t s o f a r t i s t s ’ b o o k s ,”
Julie Chen observes, “is that they have to be
handled to be experienced fully.”
If you’re not among the lucky few to
own a piece by Chen, the noted book artist
based in Berkeley, California, the next best
thing is to view them at a library with spe-
cial collections encompassing such work.
You might find yourself seated at a long
table in a wood-paneled reading room, sur-
rounded by rare, centuries-old volumes in
glass cases. When the librarian brings you
Chen’s books, you realize this will be no
ordinary browse. As other readers turn
conventional pages, you open exquisitely
crafted boxes, beguiling origami-like
shapes, a dramatic three-dimensional land-
scape. You spin wheels, lift flaps, move
puzzle pieces. Meanwhile, you’re reading
words that are poetic, sometimes cryptic,
and all the more compelling for being part
of a sequential tactile encounter.
“In Julie’s work, the physical form of the
book reinforces the concept and text,” says
Victoria Steele, the Brooke Russell Astor
director of collections strategy at the New
York Public Library. A longtime Chen fan,
Steele considers her “a formidable talent”
in the field. “Her book structures are so
inventive, and she has the most wonderful
034 american craft apr/may 11
