Ann Forbush

"Muskets to Ploughshares"

Sewn board binding with tri-fold pages, letterpress, image transfers, watercolor and slip case 1/3

What did you find most interesting about Daniel Flohr?

His indomitable spirit!

Curious - insightful - empathetic - driven. In his journal, Flohr recaptured his impressions and even added “research” to embellish his observations – he was tenacious. It was striking to discover his sense of compassion, maybe it foreshadowed his later interest in theology.

How does this project relate to your studio practice?

I love to combine disparate things. After reading the text, I felt inundated with information, to internalize and encapsulate Flohr’s story, I wrote a poem.

Next, I set about collecting 18th century images to illustrate the poem and found things like tobacco labels picturing slaves and instruction manuals for muskets. These were topics that Flohr wrote about. I chose printed images like those he might have seen and combined them with iconic images to create a “visual short hand”.

To make the pages, I transferred the images onto heavy cotton paper by using a solvent and hand burnishing. Robert Rauschenberg popularized this process during the 1970’s - its unpredictable nature appeals to me. Control and happenstance - history and whimsy all blended together as a “call and response”. Each page opens up, like an armoire and reveals something on the inside.

For text, I used movable letterpress type, setting one letter at a time, just as it was done in Flohr’s day. The Ex Libris project was a fascinating way to learn about history from a new perspective and add to my vocabulary as a book artist. My book, Muskets to Ploughshares is an edition of three.

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Ann Forbush 2016 - http://www.apforbush.com/