| Title | We Can Go Beyond It |
| Artist / Creator | Bridget Elmer |
| Press Name | Flatbed Splendor |
| Place of Publication | Tallahasse, FL |
| Publication Date | 2009 |
| Structure / Binding | Hand bound by the artist, based on a non-adhesive variation of accordion fold structure by Hedi Kyle. |
| Medium / Materials | Letterpress printed in 16 colors and 62 runs on a Vandercook proof press. Digitally generated images printed from photopolymer plates. Text printed from handset type. |
| Number of Pages | 20 |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 5.5 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches (closed), 5.5 x 45 x 0.1875 (open) |
| Edition Size | Edition of 43 |
| Signed & Numbered | Yes |
This book explores the theory of neuroplasticity–an assertion that the human brain is capable of changing itself. Inspired by the source imagery, generated from EEGs of her father’s brain, the artist simulates the neurological process of synaptic change. The original brain maps are dismantled and transformed. The resulting symbols and color fields are recombined into new images, new openings. The reader is invited to take the book apart, rearrange it, go beyond it. A celebration of possibility and free will, We Can Go Beyond Itrepresents our inherent ability to change and renew.
Artist Bio
Bridget Elmer is headquartered in Tallahassee, FL, where she is rebuilding her platen press, tuning up her 1966 flatbed truck, and retrofitting open source philosophy to book technologies. Bridget has studied book binding, letterpress printing, and printmaking at the Cooper Union, Center for Book Arts, Penland School of Crafts, and Asheville BookWorks. She will graduate in the spring of 2010 with her MFA in the Book Arts from the University of Alabama. Bridget is currently the Resident Artist at the Small Craft Advisory Press at Florida State University, where she is in the process of completing her creative thesis project and teaching undergraduate courses in Book Structures. In addition to her on-going work as Flatbed Splendor, Bridget recently co-founded a new project with Emily Larned, a.k.a. Red Charming. Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA) is an organization for those who make experimental or conceptual work with obsolete technology.