Join us for the opening of Left to Chance: The Accidental Book Art, on Friday, February 17 from 6-8pm. This artists' reception will celebrate our newest exhibition and the 43 artists whose will is on view. Free and open to the public!

February 13 - May 12, 2012
Artists' reception Friday, February 17, 6-8 pm

Left to Chance: The Accidental Book Art
How has chance affected the book arts today? What are the ways in which luck, chaos, randomness, or other manifestations of chance are employed in the creation of a book art?

2012 marks the 100th centenary of John Cage - inventor, composer, printmaker, and mycologist - who spent every January of his last decade in the Bay Area (his favorite time for both printmaking and mushroom hunting), so what better time than this winter to launch an exhibition that takes its inspiration from Cage's chance operations and his use of the I Ching in music composition and printmaking, along with his mentor Marcel Duchamp's use of chance in the seminal work Three Standard Stoppages?

This invitational exhibition showcases new and old work by book artists who use technology (e.g., laser cutting, digital printing, video works) as well as hybrids that combine old and new technologies in innovative and creative ways. This exhibition is preceded by Get Lucky: The Culture of Change,exhibition at SOMArts, which opens December 17, 2011 and runs through January 26, 2012. It is curated by Hanna Regev and Justin Hoover, and builds on Regev's recent exhibitions Seduction of Duchamp: Bay Area Artists’ Response and SFCB's Banned and Recovered: Artists Respond to Censorship.

Participating Artists:
Nick Agid, Aideen Barry, Philip Benn, Barbara Brandt, Macy Chadwick, Julie Chen, Antonio Cortez, Betsy Davids, John DeMerritt + Nora Pauwels, Ffortissimo, Jessica Flemming, Michael Gilbert, Marion Gray, Robin Hill + Ulla Warchol, Janet Jones, Theodora Jones, Kumi Korf, Jon Kuzmich, Carol Ladewig, Mary Laird, Tony May, Barbara Milman, Howard Munson, Penny Nii, Nance O'Banion, Sherry Parker, Melanie Piech, Nigel Poor, Robin Price, Felicia Rice, Tim Roseborough, Saul Rosenfield, Claire Satin, Tessie Scharaga, Yudith Segev, Judith Shintani, Patrick Surgalski, Sandra Taylor, Gail Wight,Kenneth Wilkes, and Michelle Wilson.