Ironing Board with poem by Lorna Crozier

By Lise Melhorn-Boe
with poem by Lorna Crozier
Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Transformer Press, 2021.
Edition of 10 + 1 AP.
 
4.5 x 15 x 2.25"; 3 plywood ironing board shaped leaves; 4 pages of text plus cover and colophon. Ironing boards covered with fabric with added enhancements of doll sized clothes. Text screen-printed on cotton or linen fabrics. Signed and numbered by the artist.
 
Lise Melhorn-Boe: "Each copy of this book is different, as I was using up fabric from my stash during the third Covid 19 pandemic lockdown. The fabrics are colour-coordinated. I had a wonderful time making the little shirts, dresses, pants and skirts—I used a YouTube video to learn how to make pleats. It took me back to my childhood when I made a lot of doll clothes. I did order the teeny tiny buttons online."
 
The text by Lorna Crozier is one of her odes to an unlikely candidate for literary celebration. Of the ironing board she says "There’s no harm in it, the ironing board. It’s pared down to bare essentials, simply a level surface with two flat feet to stand on. It must be put away after every use. If not, things pile up — books, stacks of paper, wet mitts, a shirt with buttons missing, milk cartons that need to be recycled, nail clippers for a cat.”