Bainbridge Island Museum of Art offers visitors free access to more than 3,000 artists' books held in the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Book Collection. Featuring one-of-a-kind or limited edition works of art from around the country and world, the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Book Collection spans the genre of artists’ books in both theme and media, including works that employ drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, gluing and binding, sculpture, photography, textiles, creative writing, poetry and storytelling.
New Artists' Books Exhibition Reimagines the Passport
Laura Zander/Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Ben Blount, Passportal, 2024, letterpress printed from wood type and polymer plates, edition of 10. Commissioned by Cynthia Sears Artists' Books Collection
The new exhibition of artists’ books at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) on Bainbridge Island, WA, focuses on the limitations and injustices associated with borders and identity documents.
New artists’ books were specially commissioned for Crossing the Line: The Passport Re-Imagined, which opens today and runs through February 2025, each reimagining the passport beyond its traditional function as a travel document. They will be added to the museum’s permanent collection upon closing. The commissioned artists include Ben Blount, Sandra C. Fernandez, Asuka Ohsawa, Amos Kennedy Jr., Kitty Koppleman, Mare Blocker, Shana Agid, Roberto Benavidez, Carletta Carrington Wilson, Shu-Ju Wang, Sun Young Kang and Stephanie Adams-Santos, and Mita Mahato.
The exhibition will showcase these commissioned works alongside additional artists’ books drawn from the Cynthia Sears Artists' Books Collection, all featuring or inspired by passports. These will include works by Errant Press, Alisa Golden, Delia Touché, Sauda Mitchell, and Anneli Skaar.
