| Title | Gertrude Has a Few Questions |
| Artist / Creator | Emily Martin |
| Artist's Nationality | United States |
| Place of Publication | Iowa City, IA |
| Publication Date | 2021 |
| Author of Text | Emily Martin and William Shakespeare |
| Process / Technique | Letterpress printing from polymer plates and pressure printing |
| Number of Images | 5 |
| Structure / Binding | Loose sheets in a folder/case |
| Medium / Materials | Rubber-based inks, binders board, book cloth, and magnets |
| Paper Stock | Sakamoto heavyweight paper, Text wove paper |
| Number of Pages | 6 |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 8.5 x 6.5 x .5 inches |
| Edition Size | Limited edition of 33 |
| Box / Wrapper | A book cloth covered folder with interior flaps, magnet closures |
| Signed & Numbered | Signed & Numbered Edition |
Gertrude Has a Few Questions by Emily Martin
$300.00 -
Please contact 23 Sandy for current availability.
Many women have discovered as they get older that they become invisible. While it may be a relief to be spared certain unwanted attentions, it is disconcerting to discover that they have completely disappeared from general notice. Consider Gertrude, Queen of Denmark in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, she is more a part of the scenery, a pawn maneuvered by her husband and son, rather than an active player. Here is her turn at center stage and she would like some answers.
For those unfamiliar with the play Hamlet, I offer this very brief and very incomplete synopsis. Before the play opens, Gertrude’s first husband, Hamlet’s father, the King, is dead. Gertrude is remarried to Claudius, the King’s brother. Within the play, Hamlet sees his father’s ghost, believes Claudius is responsible for the King’s death, murders another character having mistaken him for Claudius; and both berates and belittles his mother Gertrude. Claudius has his own series of deadly machinations throughout the play. By the end of Act 5, all the main players, except Horatio, Hamlet’s buddy, are dead by stabbing, drowning, or poison.
For those unfamiliar with the play Hamlet, I offer this very brief and very incomplete synopsis. Before the play opens, Gertrude’s first husband, Hamlet’s father, the King, is dead. Gertrude is remarried to Claudius, the King’s brother. Within the play, Hamlet sees his father’s ghost, believes Claudius is responsible for the King’s death, murders another character having mistaken him for Claudius; and both berates and belittles his mother Gertrude. Claudius has his own series of deadly machinations throughout the play. By the end of Act 5, all the main players, except Horatio, Hamlet’s buddy, are dead by stabbing, drowning, or poison.
Artist Bio
Emily Martin often combines letterpress printed images and text with movable and/or sculptural book forms using a variety of traditional and experimental techniques. Martin teaches bookbinding and paper engineering classes at the UICB. She has been exploring the relationship between format and content for many years in her work. While earning her MFA in painting (completed in 1979) from the University of Iowa, Martin was introduced to letterpress printing and artists books. She has held artist’s residencies at the Center for Book Arts, New York City (2002); Lawrence University (2012), the Penland School of Crafts (2014), The University of Florida, Gainesville (2015); and most recently was printer in residence at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, England (2018); where she printed a small book entitled “Order of Appearance, Disorder of Disappearance”. Martin has taught many workshops across the United States, in England, and In Chile, most often at the Center for Book Arts in New York and at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She received a silver medal from the Designer Bookbinders for her book The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (2012), and her book The Tragedy of King Lear was a semi-finalist for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Artists Book award (2020). Martin’s work is represented by Vamp & Tramp Booksellers, and is in collections world-wide including The Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Library in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the National Gallery in Washington, DC.