Marta Gomez
American, b. 1955 in Colombia; MFA 1987
Lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin
Ikhnaton, 2002
Collage with accordion binding
Tiramisu Press, Madison, Wisconsin
Edition of 1
This book displays a flexible variation of an accordion binding. The artist writes: “The book, which has a triangular shape when closed, opens into an accordion structure displaying a series of spaces and perspectives that are suggestive of the interiors of pyramids. The surfaces present a warm yet somber palette of earthy colors and varied textures with some very sparsely used images suggestive of the world of antiquity.”
Marta Gomez, head of the book conservation lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Memorial Library, grew up in Bogotá, Colombia. She began making books while attending the National University of Colombia. After earning her degree in graphic design and visual communication, she moved to the United States, ultimately settling in Madison and applying for graduate school. Phil Hamilton introduced her to letterpress printing in his typography course, and she took papermaking with Walter Hamady. Her early books were published under the Pijaos Press imprint, and then she and future husband Ivan Soll co-founded Tiramisu Press in 1985. They collaborated with UW alum and printmaker Phyllis McGibbon on their first book, On Second Thought, and on Carpe Diem. For Tryangulations, Gomez and Soll integrated content and structure, pairing triangular relationships with triangular shapes. Their artists’ books feature playful text, elegant typography, and inventive structures. Gomez received her MFA in printmaking in 1987, and then she worked at the UW’s Silver Buckle Press and as an assistant to Hamady, making paper and binding editions in his Gabberjabb series. In 1988 she started working with Jim Dast as an assistant conservator at Memorial Library, eventually running the lab herself after 1998.
