Bookmarks VI Artist: Mary V. Marsh

by

Laine Farley

This year’s annual bookmarks project sponsored by the University of the West of England’s Centre for Fine Print Research is called “Bookmarks VI: Infiltrating Europe and the USA.” As usual, the bookmarks created by artists around the world display an intriguing mix of styles, materials and messages designed to promote the artists’ work as well as themes related to libraries and reading. For the past several years, there has been at least one distribution venue in Oakland. This year, the only California location is at the Rosenberg Library, City College of San Francisco with the exhibit running from October 2008-February 2009. While I had good intentions of visiting the library to see if I could pick up some samples, I didn’t make contact with the librarian until January and was disappointed to learn that all the bookmarks had been snatched up eagerly by students and other library visitors as soon as each monthly batch was put in the distribution box. My consolation was learning that one of the artists, Mary V. Marsh, works at the CCSF branch in the Haight, and even better, that she exhibits her work in a gallery in my own backyard. 

I met Mary at the Mercury 20 Gallery, a cooperative of twenty artists. The gallery is one of almost twenty in uptown Oakland that participate in the wildly popular Oakland Art Murmur, where galleries are open during the first Friday evenings of every month. The Art Murmur site describes the event as follows: “Attracting gangs of bicyclists, BART riders and car-poolers from across the Bay Bridge or beyond the Caldecott tunnel, the Oakland Art Murmur continues to see growing attendance and community support. The First Friday art walk has grown to include street performances, one night only art installations, activists raising money and awareness for local social service organizations and political initiatives.” 

The gallery was quiet on the rainy night we met, offering a pleasant atmosphere for looking at her work and talking about bookmarks and libraries. I asked Mary how she became involved in the Bookmarks VI project. She saw the last version, Bookmarks V, at Another Room Book Arts (formerly in Alameda), a wonderful venue for artists’ books. Since she had already made bookmarks, it seemed like a natural extension of her work. I was curious about what led her to use books and library materials in her art. Mary grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, a suburb of Portland, where art and books were always a part of her environment. She came to San Francisco in the early 1980s and attended the Academy of Art College. It was there that her connection with the library began in her job as a work-study student. An influential librarian promoted the importance of access to information, and she came into contact with all of those bits of library ephemera such as catalog cards and checkout slips that would soon disappear as library operations became computerized. Eventually Mary attended the San Francisco Art Institute and worked at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library along the way.

Currently, she is a library technician at City College of San Francisco where she manages the John Adams campus library location. The library’s discards of books that are destined for book sales and other throwaways have provided Mary with inspiration and materials for many of her pieces. On view in the gallery was an accordion book that she made of old book covers with interesting type or decorative elements. The different heights and colors of the covers give the effect of a row of buildings and their slightly faded vintage look is comforting. Then there is a moment of discomfort when you realize that books have been dismantled, covers torn from pages, to make this sculpture. It is quickly replaced with the satisfying realization that a new kind of book has emerged, telling a different story altogether. As Mary knows, many library discards sit forlorn at book sales, their circulating life at an end.  By recasting parts of the books into new forms, their usefulness and their beauty is made evident again.

Mary’s bookmark design for Bookmarks VI builds on similar themes. She focused on the idea of “cyclical history”, the notion of rereading something with new knowledge. The checkout cards represent a record of reading and her illustrations layer on another “reading.” For the series, she chose checkout cards related to history, literature or any other titles that seem related to reading.

For Mary one of the most compelling aspects of the Bookmarks project is the distribution mechanism which is a variation on the way mail art is distributed. She also likes the idea of making multiples, like print making, as a way of taking a quantity of an idea and sharing it with random people. The randomness of the distribution, the possibility that her bookmarks could travel to other places, was part of the appeal.

Mary has made several other series of bookmarks. “People Consuming” is based on random images of people eating or drinking from the New York Times that she repainted in coffee. She then had a set of stamps printed with the images on postage stamp-sized perforated paper with the date of the paper from which they came. The other side of the bookmark introduces images of book covers, checkout cards, end papers or other bookbinding materials. She also made a series based on her travels using maps, prints, and decorative elements. A third series takes on the Patriot Act by using the letters to spell out in red white and blue “People, Access To Rights. Intercepting and Obscuring Truth.” The other side advocates us to “read fearlessly” along with a quote about the principles of democracy and our American values. She noted that none of these bookmarks has sold very well in the galleries in which they were placed. I can’t imagine why since they have a nice feel from being laminated and have wonderful images. Perhaps they would have more success in libraries or bookstores where people are thinking about books and reading.

Mary has incorporated other library materials in her work in the past. In 2005, the University of Iowa offered to give away catalog cards to artists as part of a memorial to the recently retired card catalog called cARTalog.  Mary requested cards starting with the title “The Story of . . .” and created a book out of the cards that has no beginning and no end, “The Story of the Story.” 

Books become frames for her drawings as she blends decorative elements from several books with a cutout of a front cover design and embeds a hanger in the back of the book. One example features a cover that opens but the pages are gilded shut. 

Her latest work is a lovely artist’s book made of checkout cards painted with images of women called “The Shower Party Book.” Mary has a “female icon collection” of images that catch her eye.  She combined her renderings with book titles, either as they appear or by obscuring part of the title to highlight the words she wants. The details of this book are a delight, providing humor and elegance. 

I wondered if Mary uses bookmarks herself. She likes bookmarks she has made as well as a few favorite finds. She also uses things she has found in books, like a Muni transfer. From working at the library, she has found a number of items over the years. The weirdest was a piece of salami! She noticed it peeking out of the top of a book on the shelf, and was appalled by the mess it left on the book pages. I told Mary about “The Legend of the Bacon Bookmark” and that her find was the closest I have come to a firsthand account.  

Before we met, Mary said she had a small collection of bookmarks. She told me that when she reviewed her collection, she decided there wasn’t anything very special about it. The coolest one, however, was a sort of popsicle stick/tongue depressor with a tiny little house on top. I argued that even the lowliest bookmarks can become interesting when viewed in a different context, as with the ordinary materials she uses in her work.  

All of Mary’s work draws upon various means of recording, reading, and reinterpreting words and images over time. Bookmarks are a perfect device for these themes, given their basic function and their propensity to travel from their origins and reappear unexpectedly. Let’s hope Mary will keep bookmarks as part of her repertoire and meanwhile, we should follow the advice on one of them to “read fearlessly.” 

For more information about Mary’s work, see her website. 

Bookmark specifications: Reading History
Dimensions: 2 1/8" x 7 1/2"
Material: Block prints, gouache, rubber stamp on checkout cards
Manufacturer: Mary V. Marsh
Date: 2008
Acquired: N/A

Bookmark specifications: People Consuming
Dimensions: 2 1/8" x 8 1/2"
Material: Laminated card
Manufacturer: Mary V. Marsh
Date: 2008
Acquired: Mary V. Marsh

Bookmark specifications: Read Fearlessly
Dimensions: 2 1/4"  x 8 1/4"
Material: Laminated card
Manufacturer: Mary V. Marsh
Date: 2008
Acquired: Mary V. Marsh


Laine Farley is a digital librarian who misses being around the look, feel and smell of real books.  Her collection of over 3,000 bookmarks began with a serendipitous find while reviewing books donated to the library. Fortunately, her complementary collection of articles and books about bookmarks provides an excuse for her to get back to libraries and try her hand at writing about bookmarks. Collecting Bookmarks (Physical, not Virtual) is Farley’s web site. Contact Laine.