Valerie Hird

"Obsessively Wonderful:" Valerie Hird's Dream Book

Filed under: Art, Books

Valerie Hird's "Trinity," a handmade art book is a work of art. Hird's delicate paintings in miniature are mysterious, but also captivating, lyrical, and expressive. They form a narrative whose meaning is often hidden but at the same time, tantalizing. Hird's book, a handmade creation immensely appealing to collectors of art books, exists in a numbered edition of 20. Each is in its own box with paintings reminiscent of Tarot cards. They are printed in archival inks on beautiful, white handmade paper. The book is small, 3 5/8 by 4 5/8 inches, with four endpapers that fold to make a little box. Within are some 15 paintings plus a colophon (printer's imprint) in a limited palette of blues, greens, reds and orange with touches of silver leaf. Each is signed with handwritten annotations. Trained as an archaeological illustrator, Hird spent some 25 years with semi-nomadic tribes in the Middle East. Her background and extensive travels inform her art, but today she is based in Burlington, Vermont, where she spends most of her time painting on canvas. "Making an artist book is so labor intensive, it is truly a labor of love," she says. "I don't do them unless the concept calls for an obsessively wonderful object that someone can touch, hold, and carry with them."

Tags: art books, dream analysis, Nohra Haime Gallery, Trinity, Valerie Hird