Hedi Kyle- Works and Contribution to Artist Community

Liz Batronis- One individual that has brought innovative and different ideas into the artist book community is Hedi Kyle. She is a German-American artist that specializes in folded book structures, as well as the pioneer for new structures. Kyle is the reason the book arts community have new structures like: The Accordion Book, the Flag Book, the Blizzard Book, the Fishbone Fold, the Spider Book, as well as many others. These book structures are complex, useful, and creative. With Kyle's contribution to the growing book arts community, the ways to create new ideas has become that much easier. This can be seen in her Fishbone Fold book structure.

Hedi Kyle, Fishbone Fold

       The Fishbone Fold structure is an interesting one, because its layouts decrease in size to the tip, like how an actual fish’s structure goes smaller towards the tail. This structure would allow for someone to tell a story with smaller and smaller pages. Overall, the best part of her new structures is that she makes tutorials along with them. This allows for someone else to use her original designs for their own original book idea. This idea allows for the creative community to grow together, instead of leaving others behind. As an artist, I think this is huge because not many artists are this open about how they create something new. Her love of these books and the community for them is very evident in her work, as well as her words. Kyle’s mind seems to be able to create many new forms to fit the ever-growing list of new ideas. Kyle has been creating book structures that allow for the book to be alive as an object of extraordinary diversity. Her love of new structures can be easily seen in the book that she and her daughter, Ulla Warchol, created called The Art of the Fold. Within this book they go through a large number of different book structures and how to create them. One of the books she has created, Mica Lakes, has been a great inspiration to myself.

Hedi Kyle, Mica Lakes

       Hedi Kyle created Mica Lakes  in an accordion book structure with shapes cut out and covered with thin plastic for windows. The cut outs are there to represent the geological look of a lake. While open or closed, this book allows for an individual to see through it creating a different space and area. This book is interesting to me because the way she makes every line look intentional. From the cut outs to the echoes of blue, create movement throughout each layout. This gives a viewer a sense of water moving through, as well as a sense of awareness of the world we live in. I believe that the reason, or idea, behind this work could be connected to how her father was a marine biologist, along with the water problem in our world right now. Having ways to help someone see into your world as a whole, without even speaking a single word, is an artist’s true dream. To allow for a view to be immersed into a different plane of existence. This outlook can be seen in everything Hedi Kyle does, the want to create new life and to be able to tell stories in extraordinary ways.

Citations:

https://www.green-coursehub.com/student-research/hedi-kyle-book-artist
https://makinghandmadebooks.blogspot.com/2016/04/hedi-kyle-and-sf-center-for-book.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedi_Kyle
http://www.thecampanil.com/inventor-and-artist-hedi-kyle/