Project Statement

by K. Bucher

The publication of Sunnydell Farm by Visual Studies Workshop in 2004 came about after a long journey starting in the early 1990s with photographs that I took documenting my mother and the family farm in Pennsylvania. Back then, when I exhibited the photos, I felt it was important to include texts from some of my journal writings. Logically a book was a solution to contextualize the photos in my family's history and a somewhat broader social or cultural history. I started gathering materials from the house and writing down some of my mother's conversations with me. As I put together ideas and images associated with the photos, the pages of the book became rather complex and layered. They suggested to me the pages of the women's magazines that my mother has always subscribed to and which are loaded with a flow of images and text. I wanted the finished book to have the look and feel of other common books in the house--children's books with spiral bindings--or manuals or pamphlets.

Sunnydell Farm

Karen Bucher

Agents

Karen Bucher

type: initiating

role:
artist
author
photographer
publisher

nationality:
active: United States

dates:
publication: 2004-00-00

Visual Studies Workshop Press

type: other

role:
publisher

Publication Information

publisher: Visual Studies Workshop Press

dates:
publication: 2004-00-00

publication history: One edition of 300 copies, distributed by the artist and Visual Studies Workshop Press [T. Shaw]

Aesthetic Profile

movement:
unknown

subject:
autobiography (AAT)
history (AAT)

themes: Individualism within familial, religious, regional, and labor instituions [T. Shaw]

content form:
memoir (AAT)

publication tradition:
artists' book (local)

inspiration: Journal writings, family photos, women's magazines, children's books and other domestic objects from collections [T. Shaw]

related works: My Mother's Book by Joan Lyons [T. Shaw]

other influences: Women's histories, biographies and autobiographies [T. Shaw]

General Comments

This book is connected to a body of photographic prints of the same thematic material and name. [T. Shaw]