ARTIST STATEMENT: "Stamps/Japan is a sort of study and memoir. I correspond with an artist in Japan and the stamps from these letters are always very beautiful. My interest in Japanese art and culture and my travels to Japan prompted me to do some research based on the images used for the stamps and combine the stamps with ideas, facts, and visual materials. Rather than put the stamps into a standard sort of stamp collection where they become isolated and perhaps too precious, I decided to asssemble this 'visual memoir' and scattered study of Japanese culture.
The 'form' of the book is similar to Japanese (and earlier Chinese) folio-type 'books' in which paintings were presented in such a way to be viewed at close hand in a social setting (an evening with friends for tea...) rather than hung on a wall-- an early form of our 'coffee-table books'...or like looking at snapshops-- to be passed from hand to hand.
For me it serves the function of a record of ideas, images, and impressions, as well as a means of communicating with others and educating-- all basic functions of the book."
Unsigned. Unnumbered. No colophon.
The book is comprised of seventeen collages of postage stamps and other materials mounted on board and interleaved with Japanese papers contained in a folio.