The Cover Story
Pushing Boundaries Expanding Horizons
10th National Print Exhibition & Competition
January 27th - February 22, 2014
Janet Turner Print Museum, California State University, Chico, LA, USA
Exhibition Merit Award by Janet Turner Print Museum
The Cover Story
In The Cover Story, I confront the enduring authority of the book as an object and symbol—long upheld as a definitive vessel of knowledge. Traditionally, books stand as bastions of truth, shaping the ways we learn and perceive the world. Yet in our current age, saturated with information and competing narratives online, I am compelled to revisit and interrogate this veneration of the printed word.
My process begins by translating book covers—icons of literary history—into etched images, which I digitally manipulate before printing them onto synthetic fabric. These altered covers are then mounted on aluminum plates and installed on the floor as a grid, inviting viewers to physically traverse the landscape of knowledge. The shift from upright, revered objects to horizontal, walkable surfaces is deliberate: it collapses the usual hierarchy, urging the viewer to engage with books not as untouchable authorities but as mutable, accessible artifacts.
Through playful distortions of scale, graphic language, and perspective, I subvert the familiar facades of these texts. Each manipulated cover becomes both homage and critique—a layered encounter between the viewer, the author, and the history contained within. This intervention asks us to reconsider how books construct, legitimize, or even limit our understanding.
By reimagining these books as floor-bound prints, I aim not only to disrupt the form but also the epistemological power they hold. The Cover Story transforms the act of reading into a collective, participatory experience—inviting viewers to question, reframe, and democratize the structures of knowledge and authority. In this way, the installation becomes a platform for dialogue, where the sanctity of the book is challenged and the boundaries of knowing are continually redrawn.
