Handlettered online catalog

let it go

sumi and walnut ink, Arches text wove paper. laser transfer, decorative oriental papers, recycled daphne paper

81/2 x 113/4 inches with folder open, 16 x 11 book only

This book had its genesis in a workshop which I led for the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa, on the 4th of
October, 2008. Each participant started with a full sheet of Arches Text Wove paper on which we transferred an
obscure text taken from Writing Systems of the World by Akira Nakanishi. I chose the Vai script, a syllabary from Liberia. You can see bits of it incorporated into the design. The sheets were then passed on to our neighbors who were instructed to alter the papers using a predetermined assortment of tools and sumi or walnut inks until each one of us had participated in the transformation of each sheet of paper. When our enriched original sheets of paper were returned, each participant was given the task of making her sheet of paper into a book. All the sheets of paper were quite different and consequently so were the books.

Elizabeth McKee raises earthworms, tends her garden, writes poetry, and makes books. Her work is included in the collections of the late Queen Mother, the City of Ottawa, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as private collections around the world.