Ellen Sheffield is a visual artist who explores the relationship between language, materiality and time through small-scale hand held objects: artist's books. Recent exhibitions include those at the Center for Book Arts in New York City, the CODEX V International Book Fair in Richmond, California, the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver and the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Individuals and institutions including the Bienecke Library Collection at Yale, Denison University, the College of Wooster and Kenyon College have collected her work.
A graduate of Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, Ellen teaches book arts at Kenyon where she collaborates with poets, musicians and artists in her Gambier studio, Unit IV Arts.
Areas of Expertise
drawing, artist's books, alternative printmaking processes
Education
1981 — Doctor of Jurisprudence (Law) from The Ohio State University
1976 — Bachelor of Arts from Cleveland Institute Art
1976 — Bachelor of Science from Case Western Reserve Univ
Courses Recently Taught
ARTS 104
Book Arts
ARTS 104
This course is an introduction to the artistic practice of book arts, also called artists' books. Through a progression of exercises, demonstrations and projects, the conceptual thinking and artistic skills that go into the planning and making of artists' books will be explored. Projects may incorporate various procedures of Eastern and Western book forms, adhesive and nonadhesive bindings and experimental book forms. Students will explore the intersection of text and image, and the effect of technological innovations, such as digital publishing, on the codex book form. Readings, presentations and discussions on the development of the book art genre will place book arts within the context of contemporary cultural expressions such as sociopolitical commentary, poetic association, explorations of the nature of language and carriers of the narrative tradition. This counts toward the introductory requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite. Offered once a year.
ARTS 217
Visible Language: Art and Text: Re-Mix
ARTS 217
This course provides an intermediate level exploration of the design principles of visual organization and expression of information on the page. The intersection of text and image in the analog world of artists' publication, specifically broadsides, artzines and artists' books, will be the site of our inquiry. One objective will be to recognize and make connections between ideas of publication as an artistic practice and this practice as an expression of layered and overlapping concepts related to social, political, ecological and artistic interests. This course will trace the relationship between language and art from early experiments with visual poetry, Futurist typography and Cubist collage, among others, which will provide a context for critical analysis of contemporary trends in hybrid work. Using a wide range of tools, materials and processes we will apply critical and creative thinking to envision, manage and produce several complex projects of editioned multiples. The development of skill and craft will be emphasized with the goal of mastering tools to help put ideas into tangible form. Through overarching design thinking exercises in writing text, image creation, page layout, typographic design, letterpress printing, digital printing, paper embellishment and book-making, this course is a rigorous hands-on opportunity to study the lineage of and participate in the powerful genre of art and text-based work. This counts toward the media requirement for book arts. The counts toward the intermediate requirement for the major and minor. Prerequisite: ARTS 101, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107 or 108. Offered once a year.
ARTS 291
ST: Visible Language
ARTS 291