Particulate History (2022) Double accordion structure with handmade paper magnetic enclosure. Typewritten text, monotype and relief prints on Thai Kozo with gesso, thread and collage. Closed dimensions: 12” wide by 6” tall x .25” deep. Open dimensions: 24” wide by 6” tall x 4” deep. Edition of 20.

Particulate History, a double accordion structure incorporating monotype, relief printmaking and typewritten poetry— reflects my fascination with how scientists can harvest historical climate data from the earth’s glaciers. Air pollution, volcanic glass shards, temperature changes, greenhouse gases and chemicals from across the planet circulate around the planet and become trapped within air bubbles in the ice, preserving a sample of the atmosphere each year. Scientists can read this accumulated climate data by extracting ice cores from glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland; the particles from each fine layer helping them measure volcanic eruptions, greenhouse gas emissions, temperature fluctuations and even detect the fallout from thermonuclear bombs.

The interactive structure of the book invites manipulation and presents multiple views based on each reader’s exploration. There are widows to the icebergs, text which expresses the mysterious nature of the cores, as well as textures and color that evoke the ice, snow, dust and wind that sweep glaciers. The iceberg images came from my drawings of icebergs in a glacial lagoon off of the Lemaire Channel in Antarctica. In my two trips there in 2008 and 2009, I took thousands of photographs of the ice which I am still fascinated with years later.