Rhiannon Alpers ~ Colorado
(Gazelle and Goat Press)

About: "Rhiannon Alpers, has an MFA in Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in Book Arts from UC Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies. She is a papermaker, letterpress printer and book artist.”

SFCB Shelter in Studio: Rhiannon Alpers https://vimeo.com/476086315

Lichen:
Rambles in the Colorado Front Range
By Rhiannon Alpers
Colorado: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2024. Edition of 20.

11 x 7 x 3” multi-level clamshell box containing 10x magnification loupe; 5 lichen/moss specimens; a copy of the book Fieldwork: Ladies of Lichenology (4 x 4” closed, 8 panels, open measures 4 x 32”); and, a copy of Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range (10 x 6 x 1”). Materials: Bookcloth, Ultrasuede, fabric, handmade paper, elephant hide paper, Arches Heavyweight paper, glass vials, magnification loupe, stone veneer. Processes: letterpress printing, laser cutting. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Gazelle and Goat Press: “This edition was written, designed, printed, and bound by Rhiannon Alpers of Gazelle and Goat Press in Denver, Colorado. Using a combination of wood type, polymer plates, and laser cutting, the artist collaged and decorated the book by hand. Field collection specimen panels are illustrated with a combination of watercolors, inks, and natural pigments. The oversized Latin taxonomy specimen names are mono-printed using wood type and alternative ink processes. The handmade lace paper chapter enclosures are made using over-beaten abaca pulp, wall-sprayed for a textural effect. Wherever possible, the materials and media used are documented with the specimen records themselves for reference.

“Deluxe multi-level clamshell box includes ‘Fieldwork Ladies of Lichenology’, 10x magnification loupe, and 5 lichen/moss specimens. To ensure conservation, culture tubes containing the specimens have been collected and preserved according to current herbarium standards. The magnification loupe has been also included for closer examination.”

Rhiannon Alpers: "'Lichen: Rambles in the Colorado Front Range’ explores the minuscule and often overlooked world of moss and lichen. This project began with my own fascination with the textures, colors, and dynamic forms of these tiny species, and to delve into the microscopic wonders that typically escape casual observation. Through extensive field exploration and herbarium research, I became captivated by the seemingly simple exteriors of lichens and mosses, which fiercely guard their vascular intricacies and the minute details that differentiate each species.

“The book is structured around three species: two lichens and a moss, each presented as a chapter. Each species chapter is documented through a series of nine pages featuring various perspectives and research methods. These pages include topographical maps, handmade paper, textural monoprints of scientific names, watercolor swatches, paper collage elements, and narratives about my journeys and research along the way. Each chapter begins with visual and tactile representations of the species and the specific environment within the Colorado Front Range where it can be found. Documenting these findings in a creative and meaningful way became both a narrative challenge and a discovery process for me. Utilizing letterpress, papermaking, and watercolor as my visual tools, I aimed to represent my findings in an engaging and scientifically accurate manner. The scientific names of the species are integrated into the story, highlighting their physical characteristics as well as their botanical significance.

“The box includes small samples of lichen and moss preserved in glass vials and a magnification loupe for the viewer. The accompanying smaller book, entitled’ Ladies of Lichenology’, chronicles four early women bryologists and their stories. The four women featured in the narrative are Mary Farnham Miller, Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton, Matilda Knowles, and Elizabeth C. Wright. The front side of the swing-panel accordion gives a brief poetic biography, and the back panels are layered letterpress imagery of the species the women researched and published work relating to.

“Along the way, the contributions of contemporary and early women biologists and bryologists added new layers of narrative and connection to my environment in Colorado. As with many obscure projects of this nature, it was the intertwining of scientists' backstories and the species themselves that also became a new and fascinating component of the artist's book. The women who have and continue to research these fascinating species within the community also bring a groundbreaking dimension to the field—one that is continually evolving.

“This project has deepened my understanding of lichens' interconnectedness to their surroundings, particularly within the Colorado Front Range landscape. It has revealed the complex ways in which these lichens interact chemically, biologically, and environmentally with their hosts. As an artist's book, the medium allows for multidimensional stories to take shape and be accessible to the viewer in both a sequential and spatial form. The process of going through this book should be a journey for the reader, engaging with the story visually, tactically, and creatively, interpreting the intertwining of my artistic explorations and the scientific discoveries of female naturalists. It is through the unfolding, unearthing, and untangling that we all come to discovery, which challenges and propels me to create these types of books.”
$2,100

Tracing Outlines
By Rhiannon Alpers
Colorado: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2022. Edition of 20 + AP.

3.5” x 5.5" closed; 11 spreads. Letterpress printed on Cranes Lettra Bright White, using polymer plates for the type and magnet sheet monoprint for the images. Endsheets digitally printed on Hiromi paper kozo natural. Cover foil-stamped and made of laminated layers of laser-cut St. Armands handmade paper, with a false accordion binding. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Gazelle & Goat Press: "'Tracing Outlines' compiles a multitude of layered shapes to reconstruct landscapes, stemming from aerial views of the places the author has lived. Created using cut sheet magnets and monoprinting, the shapes themselves intertwine and overlay throughout the book, to become landscapes in their own right. The layered shapes illustrate the melding of concept of place over ones’ lifespan, through many homes, cities, travels and countries.

"In contrast, the cover portrays the terrestrial landscape of the Rocky Mountains as visible from the artists’ studio. The shift in perspective symbolizes the act of taking an inventory of all the places one could go or have been – especially when it’s not possible to do so; COVID.

"Water is a touchstone for the artist and a place for reflection. She used aerial maps of water-edged cities to create the physical magnet forms/ shapes which are the mountain edges in the book. The cities included are: Encinitas, Santa Barbara, Mission Bay (San Diego), London, Chicago (North & South sides), San Francisco and Oakland, Denver."
$375

whispering stones
By Rhiannon Alpers
Colorado: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2022. Edition of 20.

5” x 10.25” x 1”; 12 pages including pastedowns. Letterpress polymer plates and mono-printed forms. Hand paper-cutting in double-layer carousel-style false accordion binding. Papers: handmade Khadi Natural Cotton, Thai Kozo natural for the back layer, and cave paper to create binding. Covers made of Ultrasuede panels with a natural mica stone inlay. Includes clamshell box with two styles of indigo-dyed Cave Paper, one includes dispersed mica flecks. Signed and numbered. Written in collaboration with Julia Alpers. Illustrated, letterpress printed and bound by Rhiannon Alpers of Gazelle and Goat Press.

Gazelle & Goat Press: "'Whispering Stones' explores the concepts of heartache, loss, betrayal and the passage of time through hardship. Using two stones to represent two sisters, one as the moon and the other a large boulder on earth. The siblings each experience life-changing, grief, erosion, and endings in different ways. The poem unfolds as they whisper their stories and woes across the night sky of distant places. The shared conversations are offered as gifts in the deep of night. In traumatic times, there is a solace to the rhythm of companionship and cycles, whether we are stones or beings.”
$750

Finding Her Place
Jeanne Baret: The Woman Behind the Naturalist
By Rhiannon Alpers
San Francisco, California: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2018. Edition of 40.

9.5 x 8.75"; 8 sections. Removable magnetic spine binding opens completely back-to-back. Digitally produced specimen chart hidden within. Hahnemuhle Bugra Fawn folio maps letterpress printed from polymer plates, adapted from French expedition maps from the published logs “Voyage Autour du Monde par la Frégate du rio la Boudeuse et la Fluté L’Etoile,” with thanks to the Internet Archive for their digital copy of the book. Crane’s Lettra Ecru 90lb specimen folios letterpress printed from linoleum blocks and polymer plates. Plant outlines laser cut and secured with Japanese tissue. Laser cut specimens adapted from the original plant specimens collected by Commerson and Baret on the expedition, archived in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Interleaved vellum sheets with macro photography by the artist laser printed on Neenah UV Ultra II. Spine bound with Gmund Bier Paper Accordion (made with brewer's spent grain). Signed and numbered by the artist.

Rhiannon Alpers: "When Jeanne Baret stepped on-board the Etoile ship in 1766, she didn’t set out to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Alongside her colleague, accomplice and lover, Philibert Commerson, she took on many roles during the expedition as a botanist, herb woman, nurse, and cataloger of the more than 630 specimens they brought aboard.

"This limited edition artist book traces the expedition of the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, through the lens of the botanical discoveries she made along the ship’s journey. Jeanne Baret was not able to document the expedition herself, due to the forbidden nature of her passage on this journey, but her legacy has inspired many, and spurred the creation of this book."
$1,300

Dwellings
By Rhiannon Alpers
San Francisco, California: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2019. Edition of 6 + 2 AP.

19 x 14 x 15 cm book with two compartments for objects. Foldable case. Handmade paper. Printed letterpress. Two tray compartment box with handmade bookcloth of dupioni silk in midnight purple and rust. Abaca cocoon sculpture nested in one tray. Accordion book in other compartment. Numbered and signed by the artist.

Rhiannon Alpers: "'Dwellings' investigates the imagined, built, and mended spaces we inhabit for our emotional safety. We as humans can’t dwell where we haven’t been. Conceptually speaking, our own dwellings (both spatially and mentally) change as we navigate our surroundings in the life cycle.

"This book attempts to materialize the personal process of creating a 'dwelling' to capture moments in time (both spatially and mentally). Deriving inspiration from natural seed pods, animal metamorphosis casings, and hummingbird nests the sculptural handmade paper pods were formed with wet sheets and either stitched with synthetic sinew if needed or left as they formed. The pods are purposefully small imperfect spaces with crevices fissures and multiple openings.

"Each book/box within varied edition book contains unique handmade paper abaca pod in the box structure. The multi-panel unfurling two tray compartment box is made of handmade dupioni silk bookcloth in midnight purple and rust, created by the artist. Both the compartments hinged trays open, one to reveal a nested cocoon sculpture made of over-beaten abaca nested and the other side to reveal a book cover containing letterpress panel poem, a colophon, and a loose over-beaten abaca accordion sculptural book in the other.

"The handmade paper, letterpress printed poem, and multi-panel box were created by Rhiannon Alpers. Quote inclusion by Susan Brind Morrow."

Excerpt from "The Names of Things" by Susan Brind Morrow.
      Words begin as description.
      They are prismatic,      
      vehicles of hidden,
      deeper shades of thought.
      You can hold them up at different angles until the light bursts through
      in an unexpected color.

Susan Brind Morrow, wikipedia 7/30/2021: "(born 1958) is an American author and poet. Morrow was born in Geneva, New York and attended Barnard College and Columbia University. Her first book, The Names of Things: A Passage in the Egyptian Desert, is 'travel writing and memoir threaded through with musings on the origins of words' which Annette Kobak says 'manages to unlock a sense of the awe and poetry our most ancient ancestors must have felt in naming things for the first time'."
(SOLD/Out of Print)

A Thousand Starlings
By Rhiannon Alpers
San Francisco, California: Gazelle & Goat Press, 2016. Edition of 30.

5.5 x 7.25"; 20 pages. Flutter accordion construction. Written, illustrated, and printed by Rhiannon Alpers. Letterpress printed with photopolymer plates and monotype, with an under layer of hand painted stars beneath, on Somerset Velvet Black. The endsheets are Fabriano Tiziano Anthracite and bound in Asahi Grey Crepe bookcloth. Foil stamped birds and title. Secret Belgian binding with Italian film yarn. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Rhiannon Alpers: "The book explores an imagined journey, being carried through the comfort of one’s dreams. A journey guided by a murmuration of a thousand starlings, undulating and wisping through the evening sky, their soft voices calming and cooing as they head into the unknown.

"Metaphors abound in this book. The support system of family and friends manifests in the starlings, and the twilight evokes a sense of comfort and stability amidst the unknown. The many threads pulling the dreamer along in this world are the guiding voices that safely and carefully show us our way. When we steer off course they gently nudge us and support us as we explore an unknown route. Murmurations themselves have an astonishing and dreamlike effect. Their immense rhythm and flow symbolizes the thin line between the dream and day.

"Much of the symbolism also stems from the author’s rekindled interest in the long tradition of fables, passed on in her new nightly rituals of telling stories to small ears and eager eyes in the low light of the evening. It is in these final hours that our day fades away and our imagination is carried off to many wondrous places. "
(SOLD/Out of Print)