A collection of soap ends inspired the books Soap Opera I and Soap Opera II. I experimented with digital presentation of the shapes and colors. Some of the soap ends reminded me of amber and how it traps and preserves insects. That led me to researching and drawing weird bugs. They in turn became the actors of Soap Opera. The text is a concoction of lines gleaned from TV soap operas.

Hedi Kyle graduated from the Werk-Kunst-Schule in Wiesbaden, Germany with a degree in graphic design. Shortly afterwards she immigrated to the United States. In the early seventies she embarked on a career as book conservator. At the same time she became aware of artists’ books and began to experiment with untraditional structures. She contributed to the growing interest in the field of book arts by teaching workshops that spanned thirty years. In 2003 she retired as book conservator of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia where she still lives and teaches at the University of the Arts. Hedi Kyle is an honorary member of the Guild of Book Workers and a co-founder of Paper & Book Intensive (PBI).