Karen Hanmer • Glenview, IL



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Karen Hanmer Mirage Limited Edition Artist Book $200 Karen Hanmer's Mirage beautifully represents the concepts of time and motion through a sequence of dreamlike images that whirl across the pages. The photographs, blurred as if taken from a speeding car, describe place and memory in a manner that is melancholic yet detached. The book is a diary of sorts, documenting the quickly passing and often unperceived moments that later prompt recollection. — Jeff Rathermel, Artistic Director, Minnesota Center for Book Arts Mirage is winner of the award for best 3D entry in the 2010 Midwestern Biennial exhibition at the Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL. Pigment inkjet prints, drum leaf binding, title stamped on spine. 5x7x.5" Series of 100, each unique. 2009. To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.


Karen Hanmer Prarie Limited Edition Artist Book $40 Inspired by Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and includes quote from the text : “I felt motion in the landscape; in the fresh, easy-blowing morning wind, and in the earth itself, as if the shaggy grass were a sort of loose hide, and underneath it herds of wild buffalo were galloping, galloping . . .” Pigment inkjet prints. Illustration in collaboration with Henry Maron, folded structure learned from Peter Thomas. 6x3x.2" closed, 8x15x2.5" open. Edition of 100 To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.


Karen Hanmer All Shook Up Limited Edition Artist Book $350 Imagery of Elvis, his birthplace in Tupelo, and a list of his best known songs. Pigment inkjet prints. Black velvet finish paper cover. 8 x 19 x 3" fully open. Edition of 20 To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.


Karen Hanmer Random Passions Limited Edition Artist Book $100 Couples from romance novel covers traced on translucent paper layer together and multiple new combinations emerge. Laser prints on “vellum” paper, pamphlet in case binding covered with velvet finish book cloth, hot stamped title. 7x4x.25” Edition of 100. To purchase this work please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.


© All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.

Artist Statement

Chicago binder, book and installation artist Karen Hanmer’s intimate, playful works fragment and layer text and image to intertwine memory, cultural history, and the history of science. Her work weds the ancient act of book binding with the high tech use of the computer to aid her process. The intimate scale and the gestures of exploration required to travel through each piece evoke the experience of looking through an album, a diary, or the belongings of a loved one. However, her works often take the forms of games or puzzles, and many include witty text.

Artist Biography

Hanmer exhibits widely, and her work is included in collections ranging from Tate Britain and the Library of Congress to UCLA and Graceland. Recent solo exhibition venues include Florida Atlantic University, University of the West of England Bristol, and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County (OH). Recent curated exhibition venues include the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Brooklyn Museum, Harvard University’s Fogg Museum of Art, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and The Center for Book Arts (NYC); and traveling exhibitions sponsored by the Guild of Book Workers, the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists' Guild, and Les Amis de la Reliure d'Art du Canada.

Hanmer holds a degree in Economics from Northwestern University, and has studied with many notable book artists and fine binders. She is Exhibitions Chair for the Guild of Book Workers, and serves on the editorial board of The Bonefolder, a peer-reviewed online book arts journal.

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Karen Hanmer • Glenview, IL

Artist Statement

Artist Biography