Description
About this piece:
Elementary Science is dedicated to David Cornicelli (1963 – 1999). It is built on themes that were dear to him and his close friends: fascination with fire; an environmentalist’s interest in cities, especially the re-use of buildings and materials; music; the Ohio landscape; and watersheds. The overall message is that life consumes itself. The poems were written in 2007, 8 years after his death, and conceived with the intent of delivery by the same means as his body was delivered back to the earth, by fire. The first edition was printed at the Grafikwerkstatt in Dresden in 2014, with one book kept aside until December 2019, twenty years after his passing. After a reading in a circle of friends, it was placed in a bonfire: delivered by fire, somewhere in Ohio. This second edition was printed for that occasion, by hand at the Morgan Conservatory, Cleveland, in 2019.
Materials:
paper, ink
About the artist:
Michael Gill came to print making as a writer, and began making books as a way to give stories to his children. He prints in the letterpress studios at the Morgan Conservatory and at Zygote Press. He has exhibited in solo shows at Massillon Museum, William Busta Gallery, BAYarts Sullivan Gallery, and Tregoning & Co. and internationally at the Alte Feuerwasche Loschwitz Gallery during a residency at the Grafikwerkstatt in Dresden, Germany, which supported the creation of Elementary Science. His books are held in the Cleveland Public Library Special Collections, as well as in artist book collections of Baylor University, Columbus College of Art and Design, Otis College of Art and Design, the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Graffikwerkstatt Dresden (Germany) and Ediciones Vigia (Matanzas, Cuba), and in private collectons in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. He is founder of Collective Arts Network, a nonprofit organization of galleries that publishes CAN Journal.
