"You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend."
Paul Sweeney 

Philosophy: A Conversation with the Artist

Melissa creates many different kinds of “books”, from hand-bound chapbooks to complex experiential installations. In fact, there are those who would say that some of what she creates aren’t “books” at all. Melissa would disagree. 

“What makes a book? Is it a stack of paper, or that that stack of paper has been bound, or that that bound stack of paper has a cover, or is it the content? Where do you draw the line between book and sculpture, book and manuscript, book and oral history, book and film? I like to think that a book as an object which contains a work of writing, which engages your willing suspension of disbelief in some way. This definition is important to me, and to my design work.”

No two books that Melissa creates are alike. In fact, they are very different from each other. The breadth of difference between her works sets her apart from other book artists. 

“Sometimes I find an amazing text, and I know that I want to create a book for it,” Melissa explains about her working process. “Other times, I have an idea and then I set out to find the right text for it. I find it's often harder to work ‘backwards’ like this, and there’s times when I’ve sat on an idea for years waiting for the right text to come along, or when I’ve finally just sat down and write the text myself for the book.”

So what do Melissa’s diverse books have in common? They are each comprehensive objects: a culmination of text, structure, and visual art. Melissa believes that a book should be the sum of its parts, that each element should come together to create something greater. In this philosophy, visual art is not merely disposable illustration to the text, but integral to understanding the work.  

“When I was a writing student, I distinctly remember a professor explaining that when we put together a chapbook of poetry, and there were 38 poems, that the most important poem was the 39th poem. That’s how I approach my bookmaking. I see this lesson beyond just how the writing works together toward a meta-purpose, but how all the elements of the book come together to create something more than just the writing or just the art or just the design.”


For a statement about each project, please visit the links above.