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The Anthropocene: Our Impact on the Environment

Perhaps no subject is as all-encompassing as our growing understanding of the impact of human life on the planet and its environment. Book artists address this monumental subject with works created on a similarly monumental scale, as well as on a smaller scale reflecting on one’s individual impact and the potential for change. 

Panorama

Julie Chen
Panorama
[Berkeley, Calif.]: Flying Fish Press, 2008

Julie Chen’s Panorama is both monumental and intimate, using large size and elaborate structure to communicate the scale of the issue, as well as text and fine detail to draw the reader into considering each individual’s relationship with climate change. “You do not want to believe that time is running out… What matters now is whether you will think beyond your own survival / And respond to the challenges that await you.” (Quotation from the text of the book.)

UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb5931374

Habitat

Jessica Peterson
Habitat
[Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Paper Souvenir], 2007

Habitat is Peterson’s response to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the people of Biloxi, Mississippi, where she worked on a conservation project with the Biloxi Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Collection. “They tell me exactly what they did to survive the storm, and what happened to their houses, offices, neighborhoods. Their stories are ongoing, and end with another story of someone who had it worse.” (Quotation is from the book’s text.)

UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb5778338

Intrusion

Ellen Knudson
Intrusion
Gainesville, Florida : Crooked Letter Press, 2017

Knudson’s sprawling accordion book Intrusion is illustrated with woodcut grotesqueries that suggest a Dürer inspired by the Anthropocene. “These contemporary beasts are the amalgamation of animal bodies and environmental abuses…” With a note of optimism, the artist concludes “We might not be able to change what has been done, but we can act to prevent more deterioration of our environment.” (Quotations taken from the book’s text.)

Purchased using funds from the T. Henry and Penelope Clarke Library Fund in honor of Margaret Bland Clarke.

UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb9406725

Hedieh Ahmadi
Message in a Bottle
[Tehran]: B-Khat Books, 2019

Tehran-based photographer Ahmadi’s collection of postcards makes clever use of the trope of the message in a bottle. Each postcard–which could be sent to a recipient just like a message in a bottle—features plastic bottles seen as litter and waste, accompanied by captions like “Your trash doesn’t disappear, it just moves from one place to another,” and “The planet does not need more designers, The planet needs more waste collectors.”

UNC Library Catalog: https://catalog.lib.unc.edu/catalog/UNCb9638039