In my early childhood I started tearing books apart, trying to reach for the space between the spine and the glued pages, or to split the thickness of the page in two, so that I would find its inner and deeper meaning - as I was told, there was always a deeper meaning in every book!
Since then, I have been obsessed with books as they engage many of my senses - I love smelling the freshly printed page, or the odour of a book that has been left for years on a dusty self, looking at the pages full of texts and images, holding it in my hands, feeling its weight, listening to the sound of the pages shuffling… Artists’ books are even more exciting. I adore the process of discovering these objects, of slowly letting them reveal their contents and secrets. Artists’ books allow for the coexistence of words, images, shapes and meanings; they accept combinations of prints, texts, photographs, paintings and drawings; they narrate or relate stories; they demand a discipline not often required in other kinds of art making - their whole construction, from the main content to the relevant structural elements up to the last detail has to be thought through from the beginning to the end-. Artists’ books create their own genre, forming a kind of miniature architecture in their physicality, turning into three-dimensional objects that can satisfy most of the senses. They become temporal, dynamic, tactile and interactive entities informed by visual, verbal and structural components. They engage the viewer in the process of revelation of a work that literally unfolds in space and time, providing an abundance of instances of pleasure.
Even though artist book-making is not my main practice, from time to time, I enjoy creating one of a kind or small editions of books or book objects, designing all the details of how to make the box, the book cover, the pages, the structure, the book-binding, the printmaking, and most importantly the concept I want to convey through them, and finally, executing my idea.
À la dérive
In the book À la dérive (Drifting) I play with the idea that people and human relationships are subjected to ephemeral impulses and are shaped by the force of circumstances, but despite this, human beings always try to reach out and form new bonds with each other. This is an accordion folded book unfolding upwards held with book-binding thread. It is enclosed in a box. The images are made with monotype, pochoir and pop-up on BFK Rives paper. Clothbound covers and box decorated with sewing. Book folded: 20x20x5 cm, book open: height 210 cm (preferably hanging from a ceiling) - Unique. For more images click here.
À l’envers
In the book À l’envers (In Reverse) I play with the idea that people and human relationships are subjected to ephemeral impulses and are shaped by the force of circumstances, which creates a spiral and back-and-forth of emotions and interactions. This is a spiral accordion folded book unfolding upwards, held with bookbinding thread. The images are made with monotype, pochoir and silver leaf on BFK Rives paper. Clothbound covers decorated with thread and pins. Book folded: diameter 30.5 cm, height: 10 cm, book open: height 280 cm (preferably hanging from a ceiling) - Unique. For more images click here.
Nexus
In the book Nexus (Doodling, Linking, Chaining…) I play with the idea of connectivity, repetition and transformation. Graphically a doodle may become a link, may become a chain… In the book the same image appears in 36 multi-coloured etchings. This is a spiral accordion folded book unfolding upwards. Multi-colour sugar-lift etchings on BFK Rives paper glued on black Arches paper. Clothbound covers. Book folded: diameter 30.5 cm, height 10 cm, book open: height approximately 210 cm (preferably hanging from a ceiling) - Unique. For more images click here.
Slow Foldings
This book is a commissioned project by Erin Manning and it is based on and inspired by her project Slow Clothes. In her own words: “ Slow Clothes is a performance installation, a movement experiment, a fabric collection and an experience of tactility. It is a participatory event: people are invited to compose with fabric, to dress themselves, to move through the space, to eat and drink, to create mobile environmental platforms. Slow clothes is based on a fabric collection entitled Folds to Infinity.” I had to translate this project into the form of a book object. Accordion book. Black board, book-cloth, sewing, magnets, pins, wire. Box: 37x33x33 cm, book length unfolded: 580 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Dires érotiques
This book is inspired by the erotic haïkus of Pierrette Pelletier. It is an accordion book with visible sewing in 3 groups of 5, 7 and 5 lines, recalling the traditional rhythm of haïku. The project was organized by the Association Les Amis de Reliure d’Art du Canada (ARA). Digitally printed text on 10 photo-etchings, decorated with silver leaf, printed on Gampi paper chine-collé on BFK Rives paper, in clothbound case. Box: 21.6x10.2x9.3 cm, book closed: 20.5x9.5x8.8 cm - Edition of 3. For more images click here.
(5+5)x8 Walks Montreal - NYC
This book project is the result of the documentation of five different walks in neighbourhoods of Montreal and New York City, respectively. The box/container resembles a small two-sided briefcase. Each side contains five maps with the walk traced on each map and a book with forty images (eight images from each walk) with corresponding texts recording reflections accompanying the picture taken. The inspiration for this project comes from Charles Baudelaire’s idea of the “flaneur” - a person who walks the city in order to experience it. Two clothbound books with forty pigment inkjet prints on Fine Art Photo Rag paper, texts, drawings, printed maps and pins. All encased in wooden, clothbound box/briefcase. Box: 31x15.2x31.5 cm, books: 25x15.6x4.5 cm each - Unique. For more images click here.
Shadow-ing Steven Woloshen
This book is a soliloquy bu it is also a letter addressed to Steven Woloshen. This book would never have existed without Steven, my inspiration and the precondition to my being a shadow. In my mind we have written it together. Also, this book would never have existed without Erin Manning. The idea for this project was hers. Soft cover book with four signatures of pigment inkjet prints on Five Art Photo Rag paper. Size: 15.5x21x0.5 cm - Edition of 5. For more images click here.
![Untitled [Shadows]Something in the everydayness of their movement made me want to record them… to capture a moment of stillness in their continuous persistence to live. Something in the futility of their repetitive gestures made me want to stop them…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d98e925d17d77249b1d1cc7/1573690732279-OEAC4NJC6FXM7ZLSFIGJ/untitledshadbook08-06.jpg)
Untitled [Shadows]
Something in the everydayness of their movement made me want to record them… to capture a moment of stillness in their continuous persistence to live. Something in the futility of their repetitive gestures made me want to stop them… I noticed the shadows; they seemed sure of themselves. They took a life of their own… Dancing in their nothingness… The shadows were definite at first, encircling their bearers’ existence in the world. Slowly, they emerged as their own entities, seemingly independent of their producers. Finally, they took on a life of their own, kicked their causes away and turned themselves into abstractions. What is a shadow? You asked me. What is its reflection? I answered. How did they become shadows of themselves? Clothbound box with pigment inkjet prints on the inside and mirror paper on the bottom, encasing a smaller clothbound accordion book consisting of 18 pigment inkjet prints on Fie Art Photo Rag paper. Box size: 46x46x15 cm, book size: 15x15x2.5 cm - Unique. This project also includes a series of large format pigment inkjet prints and the video: Untitled[Vertical Shadows]. For more images click here.
Remnants
This project draws on the shock and the sense of powerlessness experienced during the forest fire in Greece the summers of 2006 and 2007. Clothbound accordion double-sided book, consisting of photo-etchings, drypoint and pigment inkjet prints on Fine Art Photo Rag paper with wooden covers in clothbound case. Size: 15x15x4 cm - Edition of 2. This project also includes two series of unique mixed media prints, an installation and the video: Remnants. For more images click here.
In Transit
Excerpt from the introductory leaflet to the project: ‘ The fluidity of the image, the repetitive comings and goings, the moments of stillness extracted from the continuum of time, become metaphors for the volatility and futility of existence. These metaphors actually celebrate the ambiguity of being, the reluctance to call any space, mental or other, our home. These metaphors recognize the condition of transience…”
This book is part of a bigger project with the same name, that includes a series of pigment inkjet prints and the video: In Transit. The project is an attempt to capture visually the transitional moment. Clothbound accordion book consisting of 24 digital prints on Gampi paper. Size closed: 34.5x12x12.5 cm - Unique. For more images of the whole project click here.
Journey From Pole to Pole
‘ When I was a child, my family and I used to travel a lot around Greece by car. I remember I used to lie down on the back seat of my father’s car looking up from the window. The only thing I could see was telephone poles passing by… I was anxiously expecting the image of the next pole to get framed in the window. The regular intervals of sky and telephone poles meant that everything was working well in my small universe of oblivion… Id didn't matter what was happening on the street of the land, as long as I could watch the wires connecting the poles dancing - from the movement of the car - before my eyes… Inevitably I grew up; I started driving. Telephone poles were still the man-made lines that revealed perspective and depth of space. The journey from pole to pole meant that another obstacle had passed by… There was an interval between them… There was the opportunity to think… Until the next one… and the next one… and the next… The journey from pole to pole is also a journey form continent to continent… A journey from childhood to adulthood, from lying down to standing up… (first page silk-screened in the book). Accordion book of sixteen UV screen-prints, with aluminum backing in case and wooden box. Box size: 30.6x31x10.6 cm, book size: 20.4x21x28 - Unique. The project also includes individual series of sixteen screen-prints in an edition of 10. For more images click here.
Homeward
This set of books is a reference to the myth of Ariadne’s Thread. Two accordion books -meant to be looked at as one- enclosed in open box. The pages of both may unfold simultaneously, revealing one single image: two hands at the ends hold a thread and on it travels a paper-boat. Collagraphy, coloured pencils and sewing on BFK Rives paper. Clothbound case with wooden base. Box size: 30.2x65x4 cm, book size: 29.2x31x2.6 cm - Variable edition of 4. For more images click here.
Home Within I
A spinning to reflects the fleeting and non-linear nature of time. Its whirling brings back memories and the desire to return. A hand lays the paper boat back to water - a feeble and failed attempt at returning…
The idea that Home is… Within us, that home is a state of being, is the basic theme of the the project Home Within. It started with a series of pigment inkjet prints which translated into three videos (video: Home Within I) and three corresponding book objects. Clothbound book of folding pages and accordion spine with prints of photos and instances of video. Size: 28.6x30x4.6 - Unique. For more images click here.
Home Within II
Marbles are entering the frame on a background of sparkling sea-water. The paper-boat appears again… A pair of hands is trying to save the paper-boat. Someone is trying to keep the memory intact, unscathed from the distortion of time. Someone is walking away…
The idea that Home is… Within us, that home is a state of being, is the basic theme of the the project Home Within. It started with a series of pigment inkjet prints which translated into three videos (video: Home Within II) and three corresponding book objects. Clothbound book of folding pages and accordion spine with prints of photos and instances of video. Size: 28.6x30x4.6 - Unique. For more images click here.
Home Within III
Hands construct and deconstruct houses made out of playing cards, while wooden balls fall from above and disappear…
The idea that Home is… Within us, that home is a state of being, is the basic theme of the the project Home Within. It started with a series of pigment inkjet prints which translated into three videos (video: Home Within III) and three corresponding book objects. Clothbound book of folding pages and accordion spine with prints of photos and instances of video. Size: 28.6x30x4.6 - Unique. For more images click here.
Ferdinand… Or Not
This project is inspired and informed by two contrary takes of human interaction with bulls: the bullfights in contemporary Spain and the story of Ferdinand, a classic fairytale, written by Munro Leaf in 1935. In the first case, the bull is perceived as “the other” that presents humankind with a mortal danger and has, therefore, to be conquered and killed - thousands of bulls are killed in bullfights every year. In the second, the bull is a peaceful beast that just wants to sit under the cork tree and smell the flowers. Ferdinand was lucky…
Clothbound book consisting of monoprints and photo-etchings on Gampi paper, collaged on blind-embossed BFK Rives paper. Size: 28x53x2.4 - Unique. The project also includes a series of photo-etchings, a series of pigment inkjet prints and two paintings. For more images click here.
Plethora Of Horrors
This project was inspired by the invasion of… by… - It doesn’t really matter. Any invasion, any suffering, any war…
Two-in-one leather-bound accordion book opening to a central image. Inkjet prints on Fine Art paper. Size: . The project also includes three series of pigment inkjet prints: The Plethora of Horrors (mutilated bodies made out of beeswax), the Plane Structures and the Boat Structures. Size: 21.2x47x3.8 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Toolbox
This is a portfolio of twelve silverpoint drawings encased in a box. Size: 15x5.2x4.5 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
The World Is Heavier Outside Of Water
Fluid shapes revealing that which cannot be revealed. Hidden stories whispering that which cannot be whispered. Liquid curves shaping that which cannot be shaped. Sculptured stones carrying the weight of memories. Full of senses, fingers caressing... The wetness the silence, the pleasure, the patterns… (text from the book)
It was August 15, 2004, that I spent seven hours in and out of the aqua-blue Mediterranean Sea. During this seven-hour period I experienced intensely the wetness and softness of water on my fingertips, as well as my whole being. I realized that the world is heavier outside of water, literally and metaphorically. Leather-bound book in clothbound box, consisting of lithographs, silkscreen and digital prints. Box size: 25.2x23.5x5 cm, book size: 23.6x21x2 cm - Edition of 12. The project also includes a series of pigment inkjet prints. For more images click here.
Subway
The routine is undercurrent… Not fully conscious movements… Obedient, mechanized, alienated, discontent figures. And then, an accidental, haphazard, short meeting and a smile. An ephemeral community, mechanical and functional. The waiting becomes unbearable… The lingering offers an opportunity to dream…
The initial idea for this project was to create a book inside a book. Subway is a book of contradictory sequences that unfold in space. One of them is introduced in the big pages of black and white screen prints, which are base on photos of subway stations, showing the routine, the waiting, the ephemerality and boredom of the subway community, while the other sequence is hidden in the back pages of the smaller book inside, which unfolds in the opposite direction, with digital colour prints of the movement of the train or the movement of the station seen through the eyes of someone in a hurry. The temporal and spatial extension of the work contributes to the experience of reading it. Accordion book-inside book with water-based screen prints on black Arches paper and pigment inkjet prints, supported by a wooden base. Everything encased in clothbound box. Box size: 40x40x5.6 cm, book size: 38x38x2.4 cm - Edition of 6. For more images click here.
Memory Traces
The self is constantly in search of structures that will help it make sense of lived experience. This solitary universe (the self) becomes studded by the lights of the narrative hypothesis that words and images provide. These words and images, by and large, come to us from the deep recesses of the past. What else is the present if not a multi-layered structure made up of memory as well as intention and imagination. If memory is what connects us to that past, then tracing it is the road map that brings us to the original source, to its inception. Accordingly, every present moment is steeped in all that has ever taken place in one’s life. Remembering, recollecting, retaining, that which has already taken place - but hasn’t been forgotten. Thus all time is in the present tense affecting and inflecting the various layers that make up what we call life or reality or “now”. No one is ever in one place or one time or one mode. This kind of uniqueness belongs to life forms that lack memory, imagination, inspiration, metaphysical passion. Conscious beings carry a lot of places and faces and traces and times and signs and sighs within them - any given moment. All these become the horizon of the voyage, and the weary traveler, faithful to that which makes her, returns… So the city, the building, the port, the dawn, the corner of the street, the beggar or the pier, the morning smell escaping from the bakery, the silence, the noise, the snow, the light, the physical, the sensory as well as the non physical, the ethereal, all dance together and produce the miracle of conscious life. (text in accordion book).
Book/object containing a book with digitally manipulated images, an accordion book with text and an accordion shaped title. The inside cover when lifted reveals a miniature version of the Memory Trace images. All encased in a box. Box size: 31.4x41.6x5 cm, book size: 13x35x2 cm - Unique. The project also includes a series of pigment inkjet prints. For more images click here.
Escapenot
She said “You Know, sometimes, we cannot escape ourselves”. I understood. The fish that was trying to swallow me in my childhood nightmares. The black and white of my dreams, The moment my hand draws the figures. I could not escape myself, my dreams, my nightmares, my fears. I could not escape the patterns drawn in my head; the words and the shapes that inflect my every move; the dancing figures from the past; in my parallel lives they follow me. Mirrors of my acts in a parallel universe of scattered images and selves. Persistent memory scared of oblivion. I could not escape my dancing figures. In my parallel lives I could not escape me.
Book with water-based screen prints encased in wooden box with screen printed cork base and screen printed cloth cover. Box size: 31.4x41.6x5 cm, book size: 25.2x25.8x2.6 cm - Edition of 5. For more images click here.
Teddy Bear
It started from a teddy bear rubber stamp I carved. It became a play-book. Miniature accordion book of stamped images and watercolour, ribbons and cut-out paper. Size: 12.4x10.8x1.4 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Variations
Accordion book with digital images, variations of the etching print on the book cover, which actually is a drawing of the accordion book open. Size: 36x25x5.5 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
En+tropie/Transformation I
Book with 26 etchings and a blind embossing on BFK Rives paper. Size: 30.8x41.4x2.8 cm - Edition of 2. For more images of all the individual etchings click here.
En+tropie/Transformation II
Book with 24 hand-coloured etchings and a blind embossing on BFK Rives paper. Size: 30.8x41.4x2.8 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Fugitive Figures
Hardcover metal-ring bound book consisting of mixed media paintings on Arches paper. Size: 77x57x2 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
The Process Of An Unfolding Memory
The memory unfolds like the pages of the this book. Accordion book of a folded 120x80 cm paper, contained in a box with wooden handle. Box size: 22x22x6 cm, book size: 20x20x4 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Pain And Joy (My left hand)
During my early childhood my country was run by a fascist regime which considered anything “left” an abomination…
Text in the book> When I was little I used to write with my left hand. Then, one day I was told that this was not acceptable. I remember screams, I remember pain. Then, I remember effort. Now I write with my right hand only. When I was little I used to paint with my left hand. Then, one day I made a very nice painting. I remember colours, I remember joy. Now I paint with my left hand only. This is a letter I wrote with my left hand to remember pain and joy.
Book/object with plaster, beeswax, drawings, paste-up papers an photos in black wooden box. Box size: 22.8x17.8x9.1 cm, book size: 18x13x2 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
![Seduction SeducedThis is the story of Seduction… the cat [a fairytale]. Clothbound book with text, paper cut-outs and pop-ups. Size: 20.6x21.2x2 cm - Unique. For more images click here.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d98e925d17d77249b1d1cc7/1573692069223-DWMRKS5X3V4YWKRYPHAG/4209.jpg)
Seduction Seduced
This is the story of Seduction… the cat [a fairytale]. Clothbound book with text, paper cut-outs and pop-ups. Size: 20.6x21.2x2 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Sardines
Acrylic painted accordion book in a sardine can. Unique. For more images click here.
Vertigo
Inspired by the painting series Entropy. Accordion book painted on both sides. Acrylics, pastel and charcoal on thick water-colour paper. Size closed: 57.6x14.5x1.4 cm - Unique.
Impressions
Book with abstract landscapes painted on both sides of pages. Acrylic and charcoal on water-colour paper. Size: 15x20x1.2 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Low Tide
A book inspired by the ocean tides and dunes of the American East Coast. Accordion book painted on both sides. Acrylic and beeswax on Mulberry paper. Hard covers bound with hand-made paper. Size closed: 26.5x10x1 cm - Unique. For more images click here.
Earth
The content of this book is inspired by the formations of earth as seen from above. Individual pages were created as mixed media paintings, before they were all bound together. The effect of the paint and beeswax is not only visual but also tactile. Book with 24 painted pages on both sides of paper. Acrylic, beeswax and gold leaf. Japanese style binding. Size: 28.4x32.2x2.4 cm - Unique. For more images click here.