When I first read “The Quiz” it seemed like, eerily enough, the piece picked me rather than me picking the piece. The story didn’t even feel like something I would write, rather it was something about me. So perhaps it was because I over-identified with the work that I choose to go with a journal. I get a twitch in my fingers and checking account every time I come across another journal I find attractive, but why not? After all, it’s somewhere to write down your thoughts, you secrets and, if need be, the Answers.

Ashly Nagrant

I am a scientist and an artist. Up to recently my time has been 75 % science, 25% art. It is now evolving toward more art, less science. In the coming years it will be 100% art.
I favor water media (watercolor and acrylic). Bookbinding is a hobby.

The story by Cecil Castellucci is about memories; the ones you want to keep and the ones you would like to forget. I see the book as a place to keep the memories. The abstract painting on the fly leaves is my impression of a neural network. The painting was cut to make the front and back fly leaves and there is no possibility of reconnecting the parts. It represents lost memories. The blank pages are for the memories that one wants to keep. When the book is closed the neural network on the clasp is reconnected keeping the memory safe.

Lise Bernier

I chose Camilla’s story to work with because it so wonderfully describes the relationship between artist and muse. It is said that the muse – whether she dictates writing, binding, beading, singing or painting – knows her artist more intimately than anyone else. It is also said that we must not neglect our muses. In ancient times, shrines were built to honor the muses and cults existed which venerated them at springs or fountains or caves. Today some believe that the muse is no more than a myth.

When I begin to bind a book, the text with which I am working becomes my muse, informing the color, shape and structure of its eventual container. For this book, the text of the story clearly revealed the colors, texture and decoration of the finished piece. It is the text that creates the book; my hands are merely the tools through which the story operates. I find that my work flows more smoothly when I maintain an awareness of the muse who guides me. This book came into being like magic; there was no hesitation between its initial layout and the final bead being tied to the spine. I can say, after binding it, that the muse is no myth. She is real, and this is my offering to her.

Erzebet Yellowboy

The title and first paragraph of Cecil’s story immediately caught my attention. As my own short term memory starts playing tricks, I find myself thinking about memory more than ever. What do we choose to remember, and what forget…or try to forget. Should we forget? Where does scientific understanding help, and when is it woefully inadequate. I was fascinated as my mother suffered from dementia and yet held on to strong long term memories that carried her forward. I have taken words and images from Cecil’s story and incorporated them into this book…burning the edges of the words and the scientific slide images..reflecting questions of what is burned into our memory and what seems to disappear and fly away as ash.

Cecil’s story moves back and forth challenging the reader with intriguing turns, all the while propelling forward. This book is intricate and changeable. It is meant to be turned, stretched, looked at from different angles, read different ways, placed in its pouch, and brought out again on a different day. Hopefully it will encourage contemplation as Cecil’s story does. Encouraging questions, play, and looking at things from different angles is a role I take seriously as an artist. I savor dancing in the regions between most traditional art forms. It was a joy to dance in those worlds with Cecil’s story.

Wendy Ellertson