The Assignment

Jessica Peterson
Gordo, AL
Paper Souvenir

Title: Teaching Manifesto

Number of Copies in Edition: 42
Size: 9.5 x 7.75 inches
Number of Pages: 1

Medium: Broadside. Letterpress printed on handmade abaca paper. Double-sided, translucent.

Price: $250

To purchase, please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.

The Assignment

The Manifesto: This assignment introduces students to some of the basic procedures and concepts of self-publishing.

Manifesto, n. A public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives or motives. (The Random House College Dictionary, Revised Edition, 1975)

A manifesto can be anything that you feel strongly enough to have disseminated in your community. Community can be your group of friends, family, colleagues, your city, your state, the whole world, etc.

Step 1: Identify message you want disseminate, what community you want to reach, and the optimal production method to communicate your idea to your intended community.
Step 2: Write manifesto.
Step 3: Disseminate/publish.
Step 4: Document effect on community.
Step 6: For in class critique, bring samples/documentation of manifesto, as well as documentation of the effect on the community. Be prepared to discuss the successes and failures of your project.

Ideas for your manifesto include:
- set of statements about beliefs
- set of operating rules
- procedures for doing something
- set of images
- list of quotes

Possible methods of distribution include:

Jessica Peterson
Tuscaloosa, AL

Title: Cause and Effect

Number of Copies in Edition: 55
Size: 8.25 x 5.5 x 1 inches
Number of Pages: 16

Medium: Letterpress printed with photo-polymer plates on a variety of handmade paper, including cotton rag and hemp/cotton mix. Drum-leaf binding.

Price: $300

To purchase, please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.

The Assignment

Make a book about something from your life that you can't remember.

1. As a starting point, identify an event, location or personal relationship.
2. Write at least 10 open-ended questions that you have about what you can not remember.
3. Take a break.
4. When you are ready, write the answers to the questions without editing yourself.
5. Use the results of this exercise to make a book. You do not have to include the questions or the answers in text form, but you can use any part of both, if you wish.

Artist Statement

Cause and Effect is about how racial identity is formed through geography and history. It is an autobiographical story about the connections between a race riot in my hometown, my upbringing and my racial awareness. The imagery in the book consists of printed trompe-l’oeil style newspaper and microfilm clippings, which are reproductions of the sources I learned from.