Enid Mark Lecture on Contemporary Book Arts and Poetry: Draft Notations, April 10
Events
Published February 26, 2024
Explore Jen Bervin’s work on her website.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Lecture: 4:30-6 p.m.: Neilson Browsing Room and on Zoom (register for online attendance)
Reception: 6-7 p.m.: Boutelle-Day Poetry Center
Visual artist and poet Jen Bervin will deliver the annual Enid Mark Lecture, discussing her research-driven, multidisciplinary practice.
Best known for her art, poetry, and artist books weaving together situated poetics and entangled relationships between text and textiles, poet and critic John Yau calls her an “unclassifiable artist and a deep reader, Jen Bervin has expanded the notion of what it means to be a poet in the 21st century.”
At Smith College, Bervin will share a range of projects involving collaborations with artists, scholars, and scientists, including a poem written nanoscale in the form of a silk biosensor with Tufts University’s Silklab; a 230-foot curvilinear hand-sewn scale model of the Mississippi; and a constellation of ongoing works related to Emily Dickinson’s manuscripts and material histories.
About Jen Bervin
Jen Bervin’s conceptual, scientific, and literary investigations of material histories are attuned to the embodied, visual, and tactile aspects of language, and forms of inscription by non-human agencies. Her work has been exhibited internationally at MOMENTA, Biennale de l’Image, Montreal; the Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery; Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne; The Power Plant, Toronto; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; MASS MoCA; Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence; Des Moines Art Center; and Morgan Library and Museum, New York.
Bervin's work can be found in more than sixty international collections, including Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Yale University, Brooklyn Museum, and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Bervin's work has been covered in media outlets such as Artforum, Huffington Post, NPR, The Nation, LA Times, Frieze, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Bervin lives and works in Connecticut with her wife, Charlotte Lagarde, and has been represented by Catharine Clark Gallery since 2021.
About the Annual Enid Mark Lecture
The annual Enid Mark Lecture on Contemporary Book Arts & Poetry is in honor of the memory of artist, writer, and fine book publisher Enid Mark, class of 1954. Enid was passionate about words and imagery. From the 1980s until shortly before her death in 2008, she carefully considered all components of her books: text (her own words or those written by others, many of them modern women poets); imagery (her own artwork); type design and layout; binding. She studied English literature and studio art, and her bookwork is featured in Special Collections.
The Enid Mark Lecture is open to all. There is no need to RSVP if attending in person, but registration is requested for attending on Zoom.
Contact
Special Collections
specialcollections@smith.edu