New Artist Books and related works

For his second solo show at Butters Gallery, Douglas Shafer has produced a body of works about coincidentia oppositorum: a state or condition in which opposites no longer oppose each other but fall together into a harmony, union or conjunction. The works in this exhibit explore the dualities that tend to exist in our notion of books, such as cover/text, literal/symbolic, exoteric/esoteric. The show will include watercolor paintings on paper and calfskin vellum that resemble pages from books, acrylic paintings on panel based on the more minimal geometry of book covers, as well as manuscript books in which all of those elements are conjoined.

Mr. Shafer has been gaining local and national attention as an accomplished unique book artist. His work was recently added to the collection of the John Wilson Rare Book Room at the Multnomah County Library with a second book to be purchased upon completion. Also, his work is now represented by Joshua Heller Rare Books Inc. of Washington D.C, one of the country's most prestigious dealers of artist books. We look forward to sharing this very unusual exhibit with you.