Wehrle Gallery Exhibition Opening
November 16, 2002
COLUMBUS - "Book Arts and Bathing Beauties," an exhibition featuring the works of
Rebecca Brandeis Morton, will open at 1:00 p.m. Sunday, October 27, 2002 in Ohio Dominican
University's Wehrle Gallery.
Morton is a nationally recognized artist whose works are represented in the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Cooper-Hewitt National
Design Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institute in New York City.
Prior to living in Columbus, Morton lived in San Francisco and was a member of the
internationally recognized San Francisco Center for the Book, which examines the development
and creation of book forms.
Morton created the exhibit specifically for Ohio Dominican. The works featured are
composed of hand-cast paper sculpture -- "books" -- which defy the conventional notion of
the idea of the book as merely a printmaking form, and hand-cast paper frames, which have
been meticulously silver-leafed by hand.
For this exhibition, Morton uses the epic water folly movies of the early 20th Century,
produced by Busbee Berkeley, as inspiration for her theme of the Aquacades. As a result,
all the works have something to do with water, such as synchronized swimming and the
decorative era of the first two decades of the 20th Century.
"Ohio Dominican's Art Department is honored to receive and share this exhibit with the
University and Greater Columbus communities. We're very interested in studying the
innovation in traditional handcraft forms, in this case the art of the book and the art
of the frame," said Assistant Professor of Art Janette Knowles, Ph.D. The show will be
featured at the Wehrle Gallery on Ohio Dominican's campus through Sunday, December 1.
The exhibition is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact (614) 251-4612.
