Magnetically held in a celestial space, three books reckon with the motions of falling, climbing and orbiting.
Linoleum block printed pages of How to Fall; “Everything in the universe has this pull.”
Letterpress printed pages of All There Is; “Hovering high above whatever is infinite.”
Letterpress printed pages of A Star Close Enough; “Speaking of space, as lovers do.”
Letterpress printed carrying case revealing the science behind gravity, front cover of carrying case, three books, and a volvelle of orbital affinities.
Casey Gardner
Berkeley, California
setinmotionpress.com
The Gravity Series
2017
Letterpress, Linoleum block printing, hand bound: bookcloth over board
edition of 39
Carrier Case open: 14 by 13.25 open
Carrier Case: 13.25 x 6.5; 12×6; 6×4; 6×6 closed
Three interior books:
How to Fall: 6 by 12.25 inches.
All There Is: 4 by 6 inches.
A Star Close Enough: 6 by 6 inches.
Artist Statement
How To Fall
Gravity guides our velocity into the unknown. In the language of life, there are many ways to fall: out of line, into place, through the cracks, apart…. Falling in love is a plunge of infinite
permutations, and varying weights. This sublime catapult can be exhilarating yet daunting when a new center of the universe emerges. Meanwhile, falling is a lapse of control, of abandon, and falling from grace can unleash havoc.
This book is about trust, finding your own center of gravity and moving your own weight. Climbing is a negotiation of gravity while tethered to another. We humans, ourselves forces of nature, must find our way through forces of nature. Sometimes holding on leads to progress, and sometimes, rising up calls for letting go. Included in this book is a fold-out map of a climbing route and conversation.
A Star Close Enough
In orbits, two mutually attracted bodies revolve around a joint center of mass, located in the space between them. In relationship, two bodies move closer together and farther apart as they mediate their distance, following the shape of their orbital path. Meanwhile, our earth is gravitationally bound in the most propitious orbit around our sun, making us just the right distance to receive its life-giving energy. This book includes a volvelle held in an end-sheet pocket.
The Gravity Series
Process: Letterpress printed with linoleum blocks, pressure printing, monotypes, and photo-polymer plates. Hand sewn binding. Digitally printed volvelle.
Materials: Rives light & Rives heavyweight, .59 bookboard, .98 Davey board, Iris book cloth, linen thread, metal eyelet, 18 neodymium-iron-boron rare earth magnets.
Binding: Pamphlet stitched signatures; cased binding, cloth-covered board.
Unconditional Gravity
Words, images, printing and binding by the artist.
About the work
The Gravity Series: No. 1, 2 & 3.
What is this unseen power that, like love, is vital to life?
This series of books reckons with gravity as a universal, yet intimate phenomenon holding everything in perpetual motion and relationship. Each book explores how we live with influences we cannot always control, but rely upon; forces that we cannot see, but feel.
So finely tuned is gravity, that if its quantity had been infinitesimally altered, our universe could not have emerged and life would not exist. As one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, gravity is strong enough to hold galaxies together as they reel around the cosmos, and precise enough to give weight to each individual held on earth. Like love, gravity is mysteriously irresistible; invisible yet essential.
Magnetically held in a sturdy portfolio printed to reveal the science behind gravity, each of the three books tells a tale of this compelling universal force in relationships of falling, climbing and orbiting.