Katherine Kuehn
American, b. 1956; MFA 1985
Lives and works in Portland, Oregon
Audio clip and biography can be found here
Time Samples, 2006
Artwork by Alison Knowles
Letterpress and mixed media with modified accordion binding
Granary Books, New York, New York
Edition of 45
Alison Knowles, a seminal member of the Fluxus movement, writes: “The book is to be selected leavings plus used tools of the trade, the trade of art-making…A collection of materials I could not quite abandon will fragment into Time Samples …”
Included in this archive-as-art book is a map of New York City, a body print on a pillowcase, cut-ups of Fluxus posters, sun-prints, silkscreens, and litho film fragments. It was designed and produced by Katherine Kuehn. The book can be hung on the wall or collapsed into a compact book object.
Kathy Kuehn began her studies in art history at the University of Toronto before trying printmaking courses. She continued to study printmaking in Connecticut before enrolling in the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where she fell in love with the type shop as an undergraduate. She began working for Walter Hamady at his press in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, and earned her BS. As a graduate student, she helped curate the 1980 Elvehjem Museum show Breaking the Bindings: American Book Art Now, and she repaired books at Memorial Library with conservator Jim Dast. She began collaborating with a number of artists during her time at the UW, and many of them credit Kuehn with teaching them as much about printmaking and bookmaking as their instructors. After graduating with her MFA in 1985, she ran the Silver Buckle Press for 18 months. In 1987, after 10 years in Madison, she moved to New York with Joe Wilfer and Ruth Lingen at Pace Prints. She established a book arts program at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and taught for three years at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. After a second stint at Pace, she returned to Portland, Oregon, where she works as a printer, printmaker, book artist, and owner of Salient Seedling Press, known for exquisite typography on handmade paper and elegant bindings.
