A New Beginning

This dos-á-dos artist book places beginning and ending back to back. Fruits mark fetal growth week by week, drawn on translucent tissue with micron pen and paired with stamped puns. The text gathers into a poem spoken first by the fetus and newborn – small observations, simple joy, the quiet certainty of becoming.

Both halves rely on repetition rather than contrast, allowing growth and decline to mirror one another. The book holds them together without resolution – only the hope that the joy felt at the beginning might endure at the end.

A Life Well Lived

Reversed, the same images return in black and white. The poem continues, but the voice shifts. The once-pregnant parent now addresses their grown child at the end of life. The scale had changed again. What was once measured in fruit is now measured in memory.

Dos-á-dos artist book; multi-media paper, tissue paper, micron ink, India ink, magazine cutouts; 18cm x 11cm x 2cm; 2022

I have no name

I am but two days old. –

What shall I call thee?

Sweet joy befall thee!

Just as you held me

I too embrace tightly

Limbs weakening –

But the loves sustains your gaze

When the eyes close lastly

I pray you find rest

that –

Sweet joy befell thee!