Amelia Garretson-Persans works out of a small studio in her house in Inglewood, dodging two cats and two dogs that seem intent on walking over the designs before she's even finished them. If you find a stray dog hair in a painted brushstroke of one of her zines this weekend, consider it a sign of good luck. Garretson-Persans is just one of the many artists who will participate in this year's Handmade & Bound, the second annual Watkins festival that's part book event, part flea-market art show.
The festival starts tonight, with a community book sculpture based on a Richard Hutten sculpture of a chair built entirely out of books. Bring your own books and imagine each of them as a kind of brick built out of stories and information, and collaborate with some of Nashville's most inventive artists.
On Friday, Watkins hosts an artists' reception for Familiar Relics, a juried artists' book exhibit, in the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Gallery. If you think the medium of artists' books would be limiting, you'll undoubtedly be impressed with the array of work on display — from traditional letterpress to pages that unfold out of pill bottles, there will be more than 30 works that speak to the familiarity and evolution of the book. "What was once familiar," the exhibition information says, "has been transformed into the mysterious — at once contiguous with antiquity and emblematic of a bold future." The exhibition was curated by Annie Herlocker and Jennifer Knowles-McQuistion.
The big event, however, is the official festival, which takes place on Saturday and features vendors, demonstrations, food and live entertainment. Garretson-Persans' zines, which feature drawings and inscriptions that are both sweet and psychedelic, will be available, as will Kale Edmiston and Brian Thompson's queer punk zines, Laura Matthews' miniature book jewelry, selections from the Nashville Origami Club, handmade blank books, limited-edition chapbooks, and more.
Email arts@nashvillescene.com.
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