| Title | Natural Order |
| Subtitle | A Game of Pairs |
| Artist / Creator | Anne Covell |
| Press Name | Sin Nombre Press |
| Place of Publication | Iowa City, IA |
| Publication Date | 2012 |
| Process / Technique | Letterpress printed from photopolymer plates |
| Number of Images | 30 card illustrations, plus pamphlet cover and case illustrations |
| Image Process | Hand-drawn illustrations |
| Structure / Binding | Card game with three-hole pamphlet learning guide and four-flap enclosure |
| Paper Stock | French's Chipboard and French's Speckletone Natural |
| Number of Pages | 30 cards, 28 page booklet |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 2.75 x 3.75 x .5 inches |
| Edition Size | Edition of 50 |
| Signed & Numbered | Yes |
Natural Order: A Game of Pairs by Anne Covell - Sold!
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This piece is a play on the childhood game of memory. However, instead of matching like pairs, I have adapted this classic game to feature symbiotic relationships as they are found in nature. In this game, players learn not only to associate and partner mutual relationships, but also commensal, and parasitic ones in order to better understand the complexity, diversity, and often, brutal severity of relationships that bring order to the natural world. Conceptualized and printed of a quality suitable for display, but intended to be handled, I have designed this work to intentionally blur the boundaries between the functions of artist books and zines in artistic practice. The set includes thirty cards, each with hand-drawn illustrations, as well as an in-depth learning guide that teaches about each of the 15 symbiotic relationships featured within this piece.
Artist Bio
Anne Covell is an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, where she studies letterpress printing, bookbinding and hand papermaking. In 2004, Covell completed a dual BA from San Diego State University where she studied art history and metalworking, and in 2010 she completed a joint MA in Library and Information Science and Graduate Certificate in Book Studies/Book Arts & Technologies from the University of Iowa where she was Robert A. Olson Fellow in Special Collections. Since 2012, Covell has been producing limited edition artist books, paperworks, and other ephemera under the imprint Sin Nombre Press, a name that pays homage to the few remaining nameless and untouched landscapes still found in nature. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and can be seen in the special collections libraries of Lafayette College, the University of San Francisco, UCLA, the University of Florida, and most recently in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Blue Heron Press Collection of Artists' Books.