ALICE AUSTIN ARTIST

Alice Austin is a Philadelphia printmaker, painter, sculptor and book artist.

Her work is held in museums, private, public and special collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tate Gallery, London.

The Art of the Book

Venice Studio View tunnel book is now on display as part of The Art of the Book exhibition at Temple University, Charles Library Gallery in Philadelphia through July 17, 2024.

From the show web site: The Art of the Book: Treasures from Special Collections showcases a variety of artworks housed in the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University’s Charles Library. The diverse examples featured in this show challenge our preconceived notions and expand our definitions of this type of object. Melding illustration, painting, object-making, calligraphy, and storytelling, the objects featured in The Art of the Book transmit a robust sense of the time and place in which they were created. Many of these books function as repositories of memory that simultaneously reflect the values, history, and available technologies of the particular cultural moment in which they were created. The thematic groupings of these treasures display the variety of ways in which artists from across the globe have dealt with similar subject matter and content.

companion video from Temple's series A Look at a Book features Alice's tunnel book along with two of her Ventian-inspired works also held at the Temple University collection.

Suave Mechanicals

Now available for download: Alice's collaboration with Book Artist Emily Martin, a chapter exploring the history of the tunnel book, written for the Fourth edition of Suave Mechanicals, edited by Julia Miller, and published by Legacy Press, 2017. View and download the full article here >>

ReMAP

Cindi Ettinger and Alice Austin

May 4 - May 30, 2024

Opening Reception May 4, 3-5pm Other hours by appointment

Vintage Philadelphia maps, headed for a dumpster, were intercepted by Alice Austin, who shared the treasure trove withfellow artist Cindi Ettinger. For several years, the two artists have independently used the damaged maps as a material element in their artwork. Alice prints her linoleum cuts of plants, birds, bugs and turtles on the maps. Cindi uses the maps as a graphic element for her small collages. Both artists create diverse artworks, reimagining and reconstructing the city plans.

Cindi Ettinger is a master printer and proprietor of the C.R. Ettinger Studio, founded in 1982, printing editions for many diverse artists. In her own artwork, Cindi uses her knowledge and skill of the print medium, creating unique and unusual plaster-cast etchings. Her paper collages combine a variety of graphic elements and letterforms, sometimes with her densely printed etchings.

Alice Austin is a printmaker, book artist and painter living and working in Philadelphia. Inspired by the natural world, she creates linoleum prints from her drawings, using these graphic images in sculptural artist books that often function without words.

Alice was an exhibitor at the CODEX IX International Biennial Book Fair February 4-7, 2024 at the HJK Convention Center, Oakland California.

See a video of Alice's 2015 presentation at the Library of Congress.

Her art work is also featured in the books 500 Handmade Books, Magic Books and Paper Toys, 1000 Artists' Books and Making Handmade Books. Her artist books have been reviewed in Fine Books magazine and in the New Yorker magazine's Book Bench blog.