Myers-Rich works extensively with black and white photography, with artists’ books being her favored format as they allow the combination of image and text in conventional and non-traditional book forms.
“Contemporary book arts has given rise to a variety of structures that both embrace tradition and break with it,” says Myers-Rich, “offering myriad forms and interesting challenges. Yet, regardless of the approach to artists’ books, for me, the practice of craft is important. The book must be a compelling and satisfying object or environment that activates content, a work that satisfies the hands, the eyes and the mind.”
Myers-Rich won a Minnesota Book Award in 2000 for her fine press book Broder, an award she shared with poet Anna Reckin, and again in 2006 for Ghost Poems for the Living. She is an active member of several arts organizations, teaches at MCBA and several colleges and universities, and is a graduate program mentor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
The Minnesota Historical Society’s “Collections Up Close” blog lists Myers-Rich’s Ghost Poems as one of their “Favorite Things”
One of Lori Williamson, MNHS Acquisitions Coordinator’s favorite things in the collection is a fine press book by Paulette Myers-Rich, Ghost Poems for the Living: 13 sonnets by Shakespeare with distillations and images. She notes in the blog, “The beauty of this work is really beyond description; to hold it in one’s hands is a joy. It is perfectly constructed, bound using linen cloth and flax papers created by the artist and letterpress printed on photo rag paper in an edition of 26.”