“My Mother’s Bones,” weaves women’s stories through the language of folklore and fairytales. An exhibition by artists Rachel Levy and Alex Bookless, the show debuted at First Friday at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.
The exhibition pairs relief prints with original poems, building intimate stories that feel at once universal and personal. In one story, a personified tree falls in love with the world before anchoring herself with her roots. In another, a mother carves pieces of her heart to give to her child. Together, the works draw on folktale imagery to explore sacrifice, perception and transformation.
The show came together after months of brainstorming, carving and printing. The exhibition’s title came later in the process. For Levy, “My Mother’s Bones” reflects a collective understanding of womanhood that runs through the show.
“That group feeling, group knowledge, that mother entity that is womanhood — I feel like the title really draws from that, and the pieces too,” Levy said. “I think they explore different pieces of that big bright light that we’re all trying to be a part of.”
The written stories are central to the idea, but both artists typically started with the visual designs before drawing a story from there. In fact, the writing sometimes felt like a snag as the process went along, as they were both trying to write fiction for the first time.
“It made me … think a lot about my own womanhood and gender and these ideas we’re talking about and the ways it’s been reflected in my life or not reflected,” Levy said.
Levy’s mother traveled from Florida to Juneau to see the show, arriving in the middle of a snowstorm. Levy said her mother gifted her first printmaking class during her first winter in Juneau.
Bookless, meanwhile, had experience with woodblock printing before the exhibition but began working with linocutting specifically for this project.
The accessibility of relief printing plays a role in the pair’s philosophy. Historically, the medium was used to cheaply reproduce and distribute information. Bookless said that this makes the medium feel communal.
“This is an old method of print making,” Bookless said. “It spans so much time, ideas, like the way that wood blocking or relief carving has been used to illustrate things has lasted over different religious periods and this and that.”
The two artists’ work sits side by side in the gallery. Their styles are distinct, though the medium and the tone share a similar thread of mythology.
“I love old bestiaries, like, when explorers would go out and try and come back and describe an animal they saw, and it looks like, what is that? And then someone would carve it and use that to print. I just love that type of stuff,” Levy said. “I think this method of art really lends itself well to folk and fairy tales.”
The exhibition will remain on display at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center through January.
Alex Bookless stands as Rachel Levy talks about her work, “Afterlife,” part of their exhibition on display at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. (Mari Kanagy/Juneau Empire)
