Hand crafted, Limited Edition elaborate book for

 

Countdown to Perfection Meditations on the Sefirot

 

 Click here to view both the Collectors and Personal edition of this work at Bright Idea Books

 

 

 

Life Support Invitation to Prayer

Life Support, Invitation to Prayer combines drawings and journal entries to chronicle the challenge of coping with a mother’s illness and death while juggling the wifely demands of family and work. Designed to fit in the hands like a prayer book, it is printed on acid-free paper and bound in hard-cover linen by master bookbinder Yehudah Miklaf, with a silver ornament on a silk ribbon. (6” X 4.25”) signed and numbered limited-edition 12),
hand binding by Yehudah Miklaf, Jerusalem, 2000

Title page endpaper with Prayers

Book detail (mom young)

Book detail, (dad feeding mom)

 

“Ah..h..h.  Tipul

Tipul handcrafted flipbook is diminutive and meant to be carried around in your pocket to be used for  instant treatment for tension, sadness or anything that ails you. You just need to flip its pages and the Tipul, (Hebrew for “treatment”) will do it’s magic .Your response will be “Ahh-h-h.” (3.35” X 2.25”) with collaged cover and pages, hand drawn text (signed and numbered limited-edition 24) Jerusalem, 2004

 

A

Getting from Here to There  (with David Margolis),

Every important journey requires souvenirs, so Getting from Here to There is made from usable post cards which tell with words and pictures about the path that led us to make aliyah (literally, “to go up”or immigrate to Israel). This collaborative project was comissioned by the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity in Los Angeles to kick off a granted year-long residency at the Arad Arts Project in Israel. Black and white illustrations, full color cover. (6.25” X 4.5”) Signed numbered limited-edition (300) Los Angeles, California, 1993

Sex in Israel  text by David Margolis,
The text of Sex in Israel was published as a short story in the March/April 1994 issue of Tikkun Magazine. It is is a modern-day love triangle in which, by the way, there is no sex. The full color illustrations are “tipped in,” in the manner of old fashioned art books. The text of Sex in Israel was published as a short story in the March/April 1994 issue of Tikkun Magazine.  (9” X 6”) 33 pages, color illustrations, (signed and numbered limited-edition 30) Jerusalem, 1994,

Unique one-of-a-kind Artist’s Books:

The Winter Journal
In The Winter Journal the pages of an old volume of essays by Addison and Steele, (pub. 1874) are painted, collaged, and sewn with silk threads and glass beads to form dozens of exquisite small scale abstract works of art. Some fragments of the original text peek through the narratve. The natural disintegration of the fragile antique book is a lesson in vulnerability and aging. Must be handled with care. Found book, gouache, beads, thread, velvet cover, Ithaca, New York, 1978-83,
This Making a Place for Peace

THIS Making a Place for Peace  is a painting that is a book offering visual midrash (commentary) about the current political crisis in Israel.The sequential visual narrative and layered imagery describe the tension, worry and longing that consumes the citizens of a beleaguered region.  Fragile binding and difficult to decipher (scribbled) hand written text  explores and negotiates the longing for security that consumes all residents of war zones. I find myself going to my studio trying NOT to think about the political situation that makes everyday life bristle with tension, grief, and weariness. There I make a place for peace in my mind and heart, and create images that will calm people’s hearts, and in that way change the world.

9” X 6” X 1.25” acrylic paint and collage, loose string binding, cardboard  2003 
32 panels/18 pages, acrylic paint and collage,
Jerusalem, 2003, Comes in a painted and collaged box. (9” X 6” X 1.25”)

This with Box

 

Kheshbon Nefesh (Accounting of the Soul) Memorial to Fred Sandback
(one of a Kind)
Respected artist, Fred Sandback, had everything a creative person could want: museum shows, critical acclaim, financial reward. Why would he end his life? After years, his death remains a confusing mystery to artists who struggle with typical professional fate: benign art-world neglect, ongoing struggle for recognition and financial survival. “Kheshbon Nefesh,” combines mixed-media and layered printing techniques in an accountant’s financial ledger to ask questions about what life is worth and to explore the meaning of a friend’s suicide . Recent suicides of art world figures, both known and less celebrated, indicate that this philosophical problem is far from
solved.
“Applying Pressure to the Wound”  (one of a kind)
Applying Pressure to the Wound uses collaged and painted visual images to tell a story without words. These include yoga postures, first-aid advice about terrorism and the attempt to avoid bad news, and much more. The book unfolds along both sides on 14 concertina-folded pages. (unfoldedbook:40”X 7”; case: 7”tall X 79” wide X.5” thick) linen-covered hard backed concertina-fold book, comes in woven leather pocketbook case, Jerusalem, 2004, one of a kind , mixed media collage, acrylic paint, linen and cotton, with paper, concertina binding in found woven leather purse)

If You Live Long Enough 

 If You Live Long Enough (one of a kind)
Jerusalem, 2004,
Carry your wisdom with you. If You Live Long Enough includes fragments of the Hebrew and Japanese text of Psalm 51, along with the message ”Remorse, regret and sadness turn to prayer if you live long enough.” Visual symbols ask questions and suggest answers. But, like any good abstraction, it’s all open to interpretation. (scroll: 56” X 6.5”; case 7” tall, 4” diameter, 4” wide) mixed media  acrylic paint, collaged paper scroll,  in a found cylindrical zippered leather case

AMULET BOOK Bearing Witness

Tiny book – 1.5″ X 1″ X .5″ paper collage, ink, paint – worn as amulet or handy prayer reference book,   When there is a groundswell of interest I plan to produce facsimiles of this one-of-a-kind-object. So let me know if you are interesting in acquiring one for yourself or a lucky friend.  Guaranteed to be VERY effective as a protector and mood elevator.

Cover

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3

Detail 4

Detail 5

Detail 6

Applying Pressure to the Wound (one of a Kind)

Bearing Witness Amulet Book (one of a Kind)

Winter Journal (one of a Kind)

Dellicatessen Text and Art by Judith Margolis, Commissioned for Exhibition at Smedley’s Bookstore, Ithaca, NY 1982

Getting from Here to There, (Margolis and Margolis) Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity Link to D;s archive

Signed and numbered limited printed edition (300)  Bright Idea Books, Project Grant from Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity LA, CA, 1993 

Sex in Israel (Margolis and Margolis) Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity WUJS Link to D;s archive

Signed and numbered printed limited edition (12) , Bright Idea Books, Project Grant from Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity LA, CA, 1995

Abundance of Time

Signed and numbered,  cut and folded limited edition (10) book of hand colored etchings. Created with a Bright Idea Books imprint, while artist in residence at Fine Arts Print Workshop, Chelushkincaya, Russia. Funded by a Grant from the Joint Distribution Center, Israel, 1996

James Joyce and the War Against the Rats

(Text by David Margolisi)

Bright Idea Books (In production)

Applying Pressure to the Wound  mixed media paint and collage artist’s book with woven black leather case, 2004

Accounting of the Soul/ in memory of Fred Sandback  (one of a kind)  mixed media crayon and acrylic paint artist’s book, 2004

Scroll book,  mixed media artist’s book, in zippered black leather case, 2004

Bearing Witness Amulet Book

One of a kind mixed media Artist’s Book currently in production as limited edition wearable book.

Winter Journal (one of a kind)  mixed media, altered antique  book, 1978-1983

This: Making a Place for Peace ( one of a kind)  exhibited in the Jerusalem Bienalle, 2014,

Underground Dreams of a Cactus (Limited Edition)  Produced for book grant in residence at Women’s Studio Workshop (two available)

Book covers and published illustrations

“Dancing with the Moon”

American Women Reclaim Judaism

Significance of Religious Experience by Howard Wettstein

“Cosmic Target,” Cover/ Oxford University Press 2012

“Hidden Clues,” Cover for Genesis and Regeneration, Essays on conceptions of origins edited by Shaul Shaked, The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities

“Naming the Universe” page 96 of Carl Jung Wounded Healer of the Soul, Parabola Press, republished by Watkins Publisher

16 Illustrations and cover for Country Commune Cooking by Lucy Horton, Coward McCann and Geoghegan, NYC 1972 (As Judith St. Soleil)

Illustrations and cover for, Celery Wine; The sStory of a West Coast Commune by Elaine Sundancer, Community Publications  Cooperative, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 1973 (As Judith St. Soleil)

“Fables for all ages” by Frieda Clark Hyman
Published by Gefen Publshers, Jerusalem