Full Circle

1 volume (unpaged) in case : illustrations. Title from portfolio box. Written, designed, and produced by Julie Chen ... letter-press printed on various papers using photopolymer plates...produced in an edition of 100 copies. --Colophon, boxtop verso. Full Circle is a powerful exploration into the cycles of faith and belief from the first moments of obsession through the experience of deepest doubts, and ultimately passing through the place of peace where the mind and heart are (re)united before the endless cycle starts again. A large box-mounted wheel rotates continuously beneath a series of windows to reveal the many stages of the faith cycle with concurrent letterpress images of the human body. One window in the wheel also reveals a tray with compartments containing simple every-day objects that take on varied and potent meanings for each individual reader as they attempt to connect or reconcile the complex spiritual world in their imaginations with the material reality before them. Three drawers open from a slot in the outer tray, cradling pop-up diagrams which act as three checkpoints along the cycle. One of Chen’s most advanced book structures to date, the ingenious wheel is not only a marvel of book craft but also an opportunity for a level of self-exploration leading the reader toward the realization that meaning may be encountered within the process of seeking. --Flying Fish website. Operating instructions mounted inside boxtop. Issued as a rotating wheel with pull-out drawers in a silk-covered box. Library has copy no. 22, signed by the artist. Sally Hume Lincoln Memorial Fund. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition By Hand: Women & Books Exhibit fall, 2021.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_artistsbooks/1257/thumbnail.jp