Don't cut your hair it's beautiful

Artist

Morgado, Kellee

Date

• 2020

Summary

• COLOPHON: "Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful is a collaborative artist by Black Rock Press Redfield Fellow Kellee Morgado (2018-2020). It is the third artist book of the biennial Parley Project. This Parley Project publication was designed by Morgado and offset printed by Panda Printing in Reno, Nevada on Ultra Green Film. The book was letterpress printed at Black Rock Press at the University of Nevada, Reno on a Vandercook Universal I using photopolymer plates and handset metal type. The typefaces are News Gothic and Century Bold Italic by Morris Fuller Benton. This project was completed in fall 2020 with support from Black Rock Press faculty, staff, volunteers, and student employees including: AB Gorham, Inge Bruggeman, and Judith Rodby. Special thanks to Frances Melhop for her collaboration and photography."
• "Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful began as an exhibition in which I explored hair as both a material and a concept through experimental printing processes. The work questions personal rituals surrounding hair, constructs associated with hair in Western culture, and the shift in value when hair is unattached to bodies. In this ongoing inquiry I explore my own experience with femininity, womanhood, my relationship with my own hair and how it conforms to or disrupts constructed norms.... This work is continued by Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful in an effort to disrupt and explore the relationship between hair that is considered valuable and hair that must be hidden, removed, and made invisible. The book includes contributions from twelve creatives in particular, but not limited to, those working with hair as a subject or material. These individuals were invited to respond to one of several prompts or to generate their own response about hair on the body. They could also choose to include an image, either found or made. These twelve writings provide thoughts and experiences surrounding hair, multiple points of access, and themes connected to hair on the body including: shame, resistance, and identity...."--Belly band.
• Collaborative interactive artist's book comprising poetry and color photography.
• Photography by Frances Melhop.
• Twelve participants: AB Gorham, Alisa Banks, Frances Melhop, Althea Murphy-Price, Rebecca Drolen, Jayoung Yoon, Kellee Morgado, Kate Kretz, Suzanne Gold, Kat Howard, Sarah Scarr, and Judith Rodby.
• Letterpress printing by Black Rock Press; offset printing by Panda Printing.
• Edition limited to 50 numbered copies signed by the artist. "Don't Cut Your Hair It's Beautiful" is a set of interactive books that asks the reader to fold and unfold pages to construct or reveal images and text. Through the use of fragmented images, readers are encouraged to explore multiple possibilities of sequencing and arrangement where covers pair with center spreads to construct complete images"--Belly band.
• Signed by the artist.
• Number: 33/50.