The artists books reference printed ephemera, they do not function as traditional maps, pamphlets, or atlases. Time and space warps on itself through the act of repeated tracing, folding, cutting, and sewing.

The folded “map” Pocket Sized Travel Guide is based on one of the earliest experiments in this body of work, first existing as a rolled document referencing a Chinese hand scroll, where a narrative unraveled as it was unrolled. On it I repeatedly traced my atlas page-to-page and back again as I carried it in my backpack for over a year. The format represents a meditation of a personal journey. Even viewing the scroll unraveled in its in its entirety is a progression through time and space. However, it was difficult to consider how this work could be effectively displayed, which led to cutting up scroll into squares and shape it into a book utilizing a lotus fold, a preliminary structure used in both historical maps and origami. These folds were then glued together in links that can be extended as a winding shape or assembled into a closed square to fit into your pocket. This “travel guide” became the most personal of the works in Palimpsest, as its layered complexity elaborates on personal migratory experiences, becoming complex, fragmented, and unfolding narrative.

The two shaped books Natural Law and Primera interpret the difficulties depicting a three-dimensional model two-dimensionally. These books are the most sculptural and object-oriented of the series as they forgo geographic lines and instead focus on the shape, texture, and color of the substrates being folded into each form. Natural Law is based on the traditional Turkish map fold, which is utilized in contemporary bookmaking in the form of a pop-up. Using excess wash-covered frosted mylar cut from the bottom edge of Perspective, Natural Law is composed of seven folded squares glued into a fanning cylindrical shape, making it an ultimate expression of form over function.

Primera is composed of four squares folded into a Hungarian Map structure, which is a variation of the Turkish fold. This book is referential to the underestimation of the size of the Earth found in some of the earliest known globes. These were created before the discovery of the Americas and thus do not represent them on the sphere. This book functions differently from Natural Law in that it has bookends and the ability to be folded into a neat square; upon opening the book, each individual page can be observed. Primera can also be expanded to be read at both and 180 or 360 degrees, or arranged in triangular rays, exposing the pages waiting to be discovered.

It was the consideration of the geo-body, or the borders of the United States that led to the inception of the artist book Ambiguous Lines Vol.2.  Based on a large-scale piece entitled Ambiguous Lines (American Borderlands) shown in the Islander Gallery in January of 2019, it was created in response to the polarizing political debate regarding the US/Mexico border. This accordion book traces the changing shape of the continental United States starting with its first British colonies in 1607 and ending in 1910 with the inclusion of New Mexico and Arizona as the last states to join the continental US. The book acts as a time-lapse between American colonial history, manifest destiny, and into statehood – following the gradual progression toward its current recognizable logo. The color of lines in both the original work and in the book are significant as red signifies colonies; blue as states; burnt orange as territories, and gray as disputed areas. The original work was forty feet in length, drawn on sheets of plywood and lined up across the gallery floor. Viewers walked the length of history while regarding the ever-changing geopolitical landscape of the United States. Interactions with the piece included careful observation, guilt for accidentally stepping on its boundaries, to those boldly treading across its surface. In its large-scale form, Ambiguous Lines acted as a catalyst to question the preciousness of the art object and the power we assume of a line or border that doesn’t have a physical manifestation. Its re-creation at a smaller scale becomes readable all at once as a shifting progression of line and color. This form references a United States history book to affirm an American consciousness; but it additionally shows the United States as a nation is still a new concept in the historical and global scheme of things.

From Somewhere in Between is an accordion book meant to be read outstretched, created specifically to make the viewer feel lost. Maps are traced and overlapped in multiple blue and black lines with no distinction between the cardinal directions. It shows all the pages of my atlas across one another. The crossing lines can be interpreted as confounding textures, but with closer inspection one can find locations they may recognize. The viewer might locate a shape of a country or continent as a point of reference, typically of the place in which they are from. I purposely left out the Americas in the tracing of this piece, knowing that most viewers of Palimpsest would be from this continent.