Kingdom Aqueous
Jenner, CA: Salt Point Press. Hardcover. Number 3 of 24 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Salt Point Press is the imprint of Gail Wight. Her handmade books focus on the resilient yet precarious flora and fauna that live at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in the southern territories of the Pacific Northwest. They explore hybrid practices combining new mediums and technologies with the traditional craft of bookbinding. Wight works in experimental media focusing on issues of biology, the history of scientific theory and technology. She is currently Associate Professor at Stanford University Department of Art and Art History and Director of Graduate Studies in Studio Art and Experimental Media Arts. This striking book is comprised of photographs of wildlife in the tide pools at Salt Point State Park in northern California, taken over a period of twelve years, Kingdom Aqueous is an ode to the brilliant and resilient creatures who live in this wild interstitial zone at the brink of the sixth mass extinction. Printed full bleed, these images disclose the intense vibrancy and otherworldly architecture of life beneath these cold and stormy northern waters. The photographs have enlarged images that become abstractions. Its structure is in fact based on Kikuji Kawata's book Chizu (1965) with its rhythmic gatefolds and immersive photographic abstraction. Kingdom Aqueous is constructed of twelve doubled folios, each a gatefold. The full-bleed archival pigment prints are on Hiromi asuka papers. The book has handsewn headbands and gilding to the page edges. It is concertina bound in hardcover with vibrant images of starfish on the covers, with an orange cloth spine. Title and artist name on front cover in blue. A four page concertina fold is a separate 4-page pull-out that contains the colophon. In fine condition. Measures 5.25 x 7.5 x 1 inches. Unpaginated [104 pages]. ARTB/03224. Fine. More