Deconstructed Artichoke Press

Love Poems

The Tourist

Disconnecting Constellations

Yesterday I posted about some artists' books I had found on Etsy. Among them were a couple of pieces by Nikki Thompson of Deconstructed Artichoke Press, and I just wanted to share a few more of her beautifully constructed and innovative book works. You can buy them from her webite or her Etsy shop.

Nikki's artist's statement, taken from the Deconstructed Artichoke Press website-

Sometimes an artist writes or draws or constructs herself out of existence. It's not suicide really. She just got herself so deeply involved in the work that she lost track of reality and forgot how to get back. The artist kept making and remaking until she found the heart of her own story.

As an artist I condense, until I've pared away all the excess, and only disjuncture and abstraction are left. All the flesh has rotted away and only the skeleton remains. The viewer/reader can wrap the leftover bones in anything: brown paper bags, silk, memory. When the artist gives the reader the flesh of the work, there are no hidden places to explore, no questions to ask, no connections to make. Both my working process and my artist's books consist of layers and layers that must be picked at, like the leaves of an artichoke with a heart at the center.