Title | Thunder Moon |
Artist / Creator | Ruth Bryant |
Press Name | Bitter End Press |
Place of Publication | Iowa City, Iowa |
Publication Date | 2016 |
Process / Technique | Ink jet printed text, pochoir and Gouache-painted images |
Structure / Binding | Accordion inside a case bound book |
Paper Stock | Arches hot-press watercolor, Mohawk papers |
Number of Pages | 13 pages |
Dimensions (WxHxD) | 6 x 8 x .5 inches closed. |
Edition Size | Edition of 5 |
Signed & Numbered | Signed and numbered edition |
Thunder Moon is a fictionalized true story. The narrative is a difficult one, telling of a little girl who is preyed upon and raped by her neighbor. I decided to utilize the psychological phenomenon confabulation to tell this story similarly to a fairy tale. This allows the reader access to a child's way of understanding and illustrates how a child might make sense of incomprehensible horror. The structure was inspired by Philip Zimmermann's Shelter and provides a panoramic view of the lonely night landscape in which the story takes place. The accordion pages move in turn with the pages of text, enabling the viewer to progress through that scenery as they do the story. The title, Thunder Moon, is one of the names used by Native American communities to signify the full moon in July, marking a particular point in time. For this book, it points to the way in which trauma can highlight certain portions of memories while concealing certain others.
Artist Bio
Ruth Bryant is an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, having previously earned a BFA in Craft with a concentration in Book Arts from Oregon College of Art and Craft. Her current work explores issues of trauma, memory, and narrativity, and utilizes various paper weaving techniques and pop-up structures. Bryant's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally and has been included in such publications as Analogy: An Arts and Letters Magazine and Book/Art/Object 2 .