Covid: book of days by Bart, Harriet - 2022

[Minneapolis]: Mnemonic Press, 2022. Edition limited to 25 signed and numbered copies, 7½" x 5", consisting of a title leaf, a 12-page gathering ("Prologue"), and six bifolia containing a total of 26 collages and mixed media created by Bart during the incipient days of the pandemic. Conceived and directed by Harriet Bart; produced by Paul Nylander at Four Tree Press; giclee and letterpress print on paper; boxed deigned by Jody Williams and executed by Campbell-Logan Bindery; folio titles excerpted from Emily Dickinson. Covid: Book of Days is based on mixed-media drawings and collages created in response to the events of March through May, 2020. On March 13, Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, closed the State in response to the deadly spread of Covid-19. Bart went to her studio that day, collected a small box of art materials, a stack of precut paper and went home. There she created a workspace 18 x 18", the size of Emily Dickinson's desk. From March 13 thru May, she created more than 50 mixed media drawings and collages, some of which comprise Covid: Book of Days. From the artist's website: "Harriet Bart creates evocative content through the narrative power of objects, the theater of installation, and the intimacy of artists books. She has a deep and abiding interest in the personal and cultural expression of memory; it is at the core of her work. Using bronze and stone, wood and paper, books and words, everyday and found objects, Bart's work signifies a site, marks an event, and draws attention to imprints of the past as they live in the present. "Bart's work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Germany, and she has completed more than a dozen public art commissions in the United States, Japan, and Israel. She has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, NEA Arts Midwest, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Since 2000, Bart has published numerous fine-press books and mixed media bookworks. She has won three Minnesota Book Awards, most recently in 2015 for Ghost Maps. Her work is included in many museum, university, and private collections. In 2020, the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis presented "Harriet Bart: Abracadabra and Other Forms of Protection." Curated by Laura Wertheim Joseph, Abracadabra... will be the first retrospective and monograph of her work. Bart is a guest lecturer, curator, and founding member W.A.R.M. and the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art in Minneapolis, MN.