An Exercise in Vulnerability, 2023

Found papers, yarn, thread, ink

Closed: 3x9x3 inches

Opened footprint 3x18x9 inches

Unique Edition

Expectations. I’m not sure what mine were when I decided to travel to Tetouan, Morocco for a month-long artist residency. Certainly, I wanted to explore the old walled Medina. I wanted to get lost in it, and then find myself again.

Within the Medina I could see glimmers of something textured, patterned, maybe opulent beyond the whitewashed walls and the massive plank doors. But what?

I made this artist book during my first couple days in Tetouan from scraps I found in the studio. From the outside, I wanted to imply that something else was happening on the inside, something that needed me to, perhaps, exercise my vulnerability to get to it. “Exercise your vulnerability” became my mantra while in Morocco for four weeks, as well as “can I be curious, and not suspicious.”

During the residency and then after, I wrote, drew, stenciled, and reflected within the pages of this book about my time in Morocco. I specifically used it to explore ideas of frontiers and boundaries as I read Moroccan feminist writer Fatema Mernissi’s book Dreams of Trespass. It’s a water book or commonplace book of sorts, a collection of random papers, thoughts, and musings.