Abecedarian Gallery is pleased to be exhibiting the work of Iowa artist Emily Martin in the Reading Room this fall.
Martin’s work will be on display September 5 – October 24
Martin uses a variety
of printing methods with her books including inkjet printing, letterpress, Xerox, color Xerox and
offset. Her books are in public and private collections throughout the United States and internationally,
including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Tate Gallery, London; The Museum
of Contemporary Art of Chicago; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Museum of Modern
Art, New York and others. 
She teaches at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and in workshops
around the country. This is her first solo exhibition in the Denver area.
At Abecedarian Martin is exhibiting work from an ongoing series begun in 1989. She
made a series of 26 image prints and 20 word panels loosely exploring the notions of crime and
romance. Some of the images were scenes of crimes and some were scenes of romance and some
what she calls the innocent bystander images.
Using the notion that adjacent word panels shade image
meanings, Martin has combined the images in various presentations including prints and artists
books.
In 2007 Martin began a similar process, working this time with a set of images and words
as if she were casting a play. She came up with six separate figures, three pairs of figures and two
different versions each of four different room settings and one crime scene body outline. This series is called Clues but no Answers.
These characters and settings are layered on the prints in a variety of combinations.
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