(Call for Art):
How To Do Things with Words and Other Materials: Artist Books Show-and-Tell
As part of "Spanking and Poetry": A Conference on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
English Student Association Conference, Feb 25-26, 2010
The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
New York, New York

During her time at The Graduate Center, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick taught three incarnations of How to Do Things with Words and Other Materials— "an experimental seminar/studio workshop," as she put it, "in which participants will think about and practice a variety of ways of combining written text with other visual media." Through a series of weekly assignments, Sedgwick and her students played with the materiality of the codex and the written word, showcasing their efforts in a public show-and-tell at semester's end.

In hopes of extending Sedgwick's interest in words and textiles, and as part of "'Spanking and Poetry': A Conference on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick," this show-and-tell will bring together a variety of artist books produced by Sedgwick, her students, and those inspired by her work. This call-for-art invites submissions that explore in some way the relations among language, materiality, and visuality. We welcome art by former participants in Sedgwick's courses on the topic as well as those whose work draws on or intersects with hers.

Professors Jonathan Goldberg and Michael Moon of Emory University will be presenting the keynote address entitled "On the Eve of the Future." Professor Goldberg will be discussing the Eve Sedgwick's unpublished work that he's assembling as her literary executor, while Professor Moon will speak about the continuing impact of Sedgwick's work.

Possible kinds of art may include but are in no way limited to:
Calendars
Hexaflexagons
Work with Rubber Stamps
Playing Cards
Experiments with Margins & Gutters
Broadsides
Graffiti
Altered Books
Maps
Experiments in Scale and/or Layers
Articulations & Dolls
Comic Books & Graphic Novels
Mail Art
Cloth/Paper
Working Between 2 and 3 Dimensions
Conceptual Art

Submit a .jpg attachment of your art as well as an artist statement of 300 words or less (including the dimensions of your piece as well as any display requirements) to sedgwickconference@gmail.com by January 1, 2010. Check http://sedgwickconference.wordpress.com for further information as the conference approaches.

For further information, contact Allen Durgin at sedgwickconference@gmail.com.