Turning 50

1st edition

$20

1995, 64pp. duotones, 4″x8″ softbound on acid free stock. Tenth Anniversary Edition of 200 copies.

This book contains over 25 photographic triptychs and text by Bea Nettles in which she addresses her response to a particular mountain landscape, memories of her past, and her feelings about approaching age fifty. Out of print for several years, the original press sheets have been bound in a new cover commemorating the tenth anniversary of this book’s publication.

The Observer

1st edition

$25

10 pages 3″ x 5″ Offset printed with Duotones and varnish on acid free 120lb cover stock. Spiral bound Edition of 300 copies.

This small palm-sized book has photographs of Nettles every decade, from a girl of ten to a woman in her fifties. They eyes are cut out to reveal alternately the young eyes in the older face, then the older eyes in the younger face. It is a humorous, jarring, but truthful study of the process of aging.

Mountain Dream Tarot

New Edition

2nd edition

$25

2001, 78 cards boxed, duotones, each suit a different color. 4 x 5 1/4″

One of the first photographic tarot decks in history was produced by Nettles in 1975. The deck has been shown internationally and is in The Encyclopedia of Tarot by Stuart Kaplan. The cards are a complex collection of visual information, combining mythology, numerology, astrology and archetypal images. This is a recently released edition, updated for a new generation.

Flamingo In The Dark

1st edition

$35

1979, 72pp., full color plates, 11″ square, hardbound.

A visual autobiography containing over sixty five bichromate images created in multi-layered color, predating digitally manipulated photographs by years.

“These images float freely across the picture, defying gravity and ignoring normal space and scale with Surrealist-influenced irrationality. Figures loom large over landscapes and turn into angels; the moon beams at the earth with a smiling face and then becomes a dish or a clock. Folds of patterned cloth sprawl into mountainscapes while translucent fish swim through rainbows in the night sky. The artist’s visions come alive against backdrops of purples, greens, blues, mauve pinks, amber, browns…. Emotionally charged and deeply subjective, Nettles’ colors are equivalents for a reality perceivable only by the inner eye.” Shelley Rice, Art in America, June 1978

Flamingo In The Dark

Special Artist’s Edition

1st edition

$100

Signed and numbered with six 11” square offset prints encased in a clothbound slipcase. Approximately 6 copies left!

Complexities

Images and Text

1st edition

$15

1992, 48pp.,duotones, 10” square, softbound.

To untangle and examine the complex ties that bind many mothers, Nettles blends her experiences of childhood, education, pregnancy, childbirth, housework, and professional life.In this book’s layered images and text she demonstrates how she uses intrusions, improvisation, and balancing as the basis for her art, an art that is tightly woven with her life.

“All mothers are ‘working mothers.’ I belong to the majority of American women who also happen to work outside of their homes. For twenty-two years I have been an artist and college professor. What I do involves balancing priorities and making compromises. I function despite frequent interruptions, piecing things together in patches of time. My roles as artist, teacher, and mother can at times enhance each other, at times compete.” From the Introduction

Corners

Grace and Bea Nettles

1st edition

$15

1988, 102pp.,numerous halftones in two colors, 8.5” square, softbound.

A book of 75 poems by Grace Nettles with images by her daughter Bea. In the mid 70’s they produced three limited edition books: The Elsewhere Bird, The Imaginary Blowtorch, and Of Loss and Love. This book is a result of their continuing mother/daughter collaboration.

“I selected the poetry and sequenced it according to the archetypal four corners, seasons, or ages. This square book is named after the poem by the same name. The book begins in the spring with Grace’s “The Dream that Started it All Again” with its search for memories of her childhood…By summer there are roses and poems of the many forms of love (for her brother, husband, sons and daughters.) Memorable images of heartbreak/forgetting and trust/loyalty.” From the Introduction

Memory Loss

1st edition

$8

1994, 48pp.,2 colors, 8” square, softbound, laminated.

The companion book to Grace’s Daughter. Designed directly on the computer by scanning images and placing them with the stories. A great example of what to do with your family photographs!

“This collection of family history and images dates back to the Civil War and the beginnings of photography. My father’s grandparents, the Nettles and Haleys helped to establish the small town of Palmetto, Florida after the Civil War. My mother’s family moved to Florida before the Depression. These stories are drawn from a variety of sources: a Civil War journal, my grandfather Noble’s three year diary from the ‘20s and the genealogical notes and extensive autobiography written by my father Victor Nettles.” From the Introduction

Grace’s Daughter

1st edition

$8

1994, 48pp.,2 colors, 8” square, softbound, laminated.

This book presents a collection of family stories including The Passage of the Ruby Ring, The Summer I was Four, Growing My Hair Long, and Indian Oaks. It was produced entirely on the computer from snapshots and manipulated photographs and printed in mauve and black inks on acid free paper.

“Recently my father shipped me the rest of the family negatives. It is a fine collection, dating back to his parents’ courtship in late nineteenth century Florida. Looking through them reinforced a strong interest that I have in family stories and heredity. Memory and autobiography have always played a role in my art work but the intensity of my backward gaze is stronger than ever. I suppose this has been brought on by the advancing age of my parents and my own realization that I have passed my life’s midway point…” From the Introduction

Knights of Assisi

A Journey Through The Tarot

1st edition

$10

1990, 24pp., 17 full color plates, 8.5”square, softbound with dust jacket

Shot on location in Assisi, Italy, this book features hand colored portraits based upon the Tarot cards. The book has a full color dust jacket and decorative end-papers with the look and feel of the pink rock walls of Italy.

“These images work on many levels and provide a rich resource for contemplation. The broadest range of human personality is symbolized by these suits from the aggressive/intellectual swords to the passive/emotional cups. It was this range I wished to portray and I had the opportunity to travel to Italy to find the proper site. From a distance I read about the hill town of Assisi with its pink stone fortresses and St Francis’s Basilica. The town rises like a vision from the flat fertile fields. There one finds ancient manifestations of the military, agricultural, mercantile, and spiritual activities upon which the respective suits of swords, wands, pentacles and cups were based. I was thrilled as I climbed up the narrow streets and rounded the bend to see the fortress which matched my sketch for the cover image. It was a dream realized.” From the Introduction

Life’s Lessons

A Mother’s Journal

1st edition

$15

1990, 68pp., duotones, 8.5×11”, softbound.

Photos and text which examine contemporary mother/child relationships and issues of separation, gender, aggression, materialism, and hopes for the future generation.

“In our society, motherhood is kept separate from the rest of cultural production, and women who are mothers have no voice. The powerful and complex experiences of motherhood therefore are largely unarticulated. In Life’s Lessons, Bea Nettles courageously opens the door for mothers to express their concerns. She connects the private and public spheres with great artistic eloquence. This book is a crucially important contribution both to the art world and to the growing understanding of the lives of women.” Sandra Matthews, Hampshire College, Amherst Massachusetts

“…most moving as psychological document. Nettles wishes to be clear about her intent; thus her photographs are far more documentary than her earlier work and her texts are presented clearly and unambiguously. Yet, her own fears about the world surface as they are projected onto her childrens’ lives and images, and her disapproval of aspects of her environment becomes the source of tension in her pictures. Thus, her art expands beyond the documentary into an expressive photographic journey, as she struggles to live and to make art out of that life.” Claire Wolf Krantz, New Art Examiner, April 1992

The Skirted Garden

20 Years of Images

1st edition

$5

1990, 48pp.,numerous halftones, 8.5×11”, softbound

Major themes in her work were celebrated in 1990 with the production of this very affordable book. It is a helpful supplement to her other works and has been widely used by students in classes studying artist’s methods and motivation.

“I chose to name this book primarily after a painting by the same name done over 20 years ago… I would also like to speak to the importance of the garden in my own life. I am a gardener, as are my parents. It is not surprising that working with plants is an activity I require. I also love to share starts of plants with others. This gives me the greatest pleasure. Perhaps it contributes to my desire for immortality, but when people tell me they think of me when they see a plant I gave them doing well in their yard I feel great. There are some parallels to making art and tending one’s garden, but again sharing is a key activity. It is reassuring to think that sometimes something that I have nurtured and grown (and here I mean an idea or an image) can be split up, shared, and even better yet transplanted into someone else’s backyard.” From the Conclusion

Seasonal Turns

1st edition

$10

1998, 4 accordion booklets, 56 duotones, boxed. 3.5×24.5″

The passing of the seasons is represented by strips of sequenced photographs folded into four accordion books. Each book is printed in a different color, combining evocative landscapes and portraits.

“One after another, the images emphasize qualities in each other as the reader moves from one juxtaposed pair to another. The sense of continuity that is created has to do with the skill of Nettles’s sequencing, the way she reigns in the multiple levels of photographic meaning enough to anchor the viewer’s experience in connections from one image to another. The full effect of the photographs escapes these links, of course, allowing them their more expansive resonance as memory fragments and personal records.” Journal of Artist’s Books JAB, Fall 1999

28 Days

A Deck of Cards

1st edition

$5

1991, 28 cards, duotones, boxed 3.5×4.5″

28 cards represent some of the emotions and physical sensations of the menstrual cycle. Medical text is intermixed with the artist’s personal statements about her cycle. They are a blend of mystery, honesty, and humor, presented with the hope that they can open discussion on this universal, but practically invisible female experience. The ideal presentation is to lay them out in a circle on a round table. In this way the transition from Day 28 to Day 1 of the following cycle is continuous, as it is in real life…a familiar spiral that continues for women for perhaps 40 years.

These cards make wonderful gifts! Buy a pack for your daughter, your mother, your friends.

“At times humorous, this primer for both sexes and all ages offers a simple, demystified account of menstruation. Essentially inquisitive, enriching, and yes, fresh. 28 Days represents menses as a subject worthy of more discussion, recognition, understanding, and picturing.” Bridget Shields, Film in the Cities, Minneapolis

Pyramid Special

A Collection of Offset Books by Bea Nettles

$180

Prairie Book Arts Center is pleased to offer the Pyramid Special, a complete collection of the photographic offset books of Bea Nettles. The entire set is $180 including shipping. A few of these titles will soon be out of print, so this is a excellent opportunity to obtain a complete set for your library.