Deborah Chodoff
Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York
Bio: Deborah Phillips Chodoff studied printmaking at Atelier 17 in Paris with Stanley William Hayter and Krishna Reddy. After many years as a printmaker and painter, she started making unique artists’ books. Chodoff’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in numerous collections, including the libraries at MoMA, Harvard University, Yale University, University of Alberta, and Florida Atlantic University; the Fine Art Collection at The Center for Book Arts in New York City; and Hillary Clinton’s archive collection. Chodoff currently teaches and is the art department coordinator at Wooster School in Danbury CT. She lives in Katonah NY.
Statement: Born of a need to tease out conflict in everyday situations, my artists’ books speak to the interaction of human nature with mundane frustrations, the push/pull of constraints and expectations, and encounters with uncontrollable situations.
I have chosen the book form as the vehicle for this subject matter because of its time-based, sequential nature. Whether a book hangs, stands open, or awaits the viewer to manipulate the pages, the experience builds over time and space.
I use a wide range of materials that relate to the ideas driving the work. The collaged pages build on a base of heavily worked book board and include distressed, painted, and printed papers, photographs and scans, and found objects, adding a tactile, physical dimension to the work. The bindings combine traditional and ad hoc techniques; the found objects often serve a structural purpose, and dictate the binding solutions along with the size and shape of the pages. Texts are minimal, consisting of conceptual wordplay that complements or steers the visual experience.
The materials influence the decisions I make about the formal aspects of the book--size, shape, format, binding, housing--resulting in sculptural, freestanding works that stretch the limits of the book form.
All the elements of the book refer literally or metaphorically to its central concept, and images and associations build over the course of the experience to deliver the message.
Statement: Born of a need to tease out conflict in everyday situations, my artists’ books speak to the interaction of human nature with mundane frustrations, the push/pull of constraints and expectations, and encounters with uncontrollable situations.
I have chosen the book form as the vehicle for this subject matter because of its time-based, sequential nature. Whether a book hangs, stands open, or awaits the viewer to manipulate the pages, the experience builds over time and space.
I use a wide range of materials that relate to the ideas driving the work. The collaged pages build on a base of heavily worked book board and include distressed, painted, and printed papers, photographs and scans, and found objects, adding a tactile, physical dimension to the work. The bindings combine traditional and ad hoc techniques; the found objects often serve a structural purpose, and dictate the binding solutions along with the size and shape of the pages. Texts are minimal, consisting of conceptual wordplay that complements or steers the visual experience.
The materials influence the decisions I make about the formal aspects of the book--size, shape, format, binding, housing--resulting in sculptural, freestanding works that stretch the limits of the book form.
All the elements of the book refer literally or metaphorically to its central concept, and images and associations build over the course of the experience to deliver the message.