Maureen Piggins


	Maureen Piggins is a book artist, graphic designer and poet living in Toronto, Canada
		Title: Mica Hypothesis Handbound unique artist book Hand-split mica panels, inkjet on mica paper, original acrylic painted panel The book can be displayed in a variety of ways. Size: 4 x 3 x.5 inches Opens to five panels, central panel with four satellite panels *This work was conceived specifically for the Doverodde Book Festival curated exhibition, Island, in Denmark*
Reprint of poem in the book: THE MICA HYPOTHESIS Cropping up from ancient rock Akilia Island holds her Hadeon dead 3.85 billion years still And in the nursery ocean where biomolecules joined between layers of mica and currents swayed the protected spaces the blind watchmaker knew naught of what He made beneath the waves		The Mica Hypothesis refers to the origin of life theory developed by the scientist, Helen Hansma of the National Science Foundation. Akilia Island, Greenland, is purported to hold evidence of this earlist life on Earth.
		Title: Echo Handbound artist book, 64 pages, open edition French Fold accordion, giclée on Hanhnemühle paper Front cover photograph of artist's mother circa 1965, credit unknown Price: $800 Cdn, available on commission, please enquire. Dimensions: Closed: 5 x 4.25x1.5 inches Fully extended: 5"h x 9 feet long
Artist Statement: My mother died at the age of 65 after 8 years of living with breast cancer. During the last months of her life, my father cared for her at home while my daily visits gave me insight into the strength of both my parents. We watched as her vitality succumbed to pain and the clouding of morphine and then finally to the actual process of dying. My memories are not all without happiness, but the urgency to invest the most painful into words and images has always been strongest – questioning memory's distance, giving it a separate voice. In effect, these pages are a chronology of grieving that I believe never really ends, itself evolving into memory that is inseparable from the image of the one lost. The book reads from the front cover through to the end of one side, with the back cover turned like another page, and continues along the second side back to the front cover. The symbolism of the format is two-fold: the content in the first half deals chronologically with illness, while the second half begins with the terminal clarity of death and explores the process of mourning; the intention is to make these two phases distinct yet connected. As grieving is not a linear process, we return again and again to the beginning, before death, reaching for memory, understanding and acceptance. Contact Details for this book artist: Maureen Piggins email: maureen@maureenpiggins.com website: www.maureenpiggins.com