Endangered Volume II

Part of an ongoing series Endangered Volume II uses a partial skin shed from a bull snake, rattlesnake vertebrae and rattlesnake rib bones. I've never been afraid of snakes and delight in the sensation of a snake slithering along bare skin. Bound in a long stitch over tyvek straps with an exposed spine, the three thick, rigid pages of this book along with the front cover include bits of snake bones and skin protected with overlays of mica. The front and back covers use a split-board attachment. The book rests atop a plexi-glazed tray containging a bull snake shed from one of several snakes my great-aunt kept. The paper lining the tray bottom was made during a workshop with Mary Ellen Long in Telluride and has another snake shed embedded in it. The prints used in the text block are handmade sheets using pulp painting.

Endangered is a series of artists' books, each housed in a custom drop-spine box, the tray of which contains an assemblage, almost a mini-diorama, of various specimens. While the selected subjects of the series aren't officially endangered, I think that much of the natural world is indeed endangered. That there are still specimens to be gathered without much effort or extensive travel helps me live with the despair I too often feel when considering the likely future of the outdoor spaces I love and thrive in.