kNot Free, kNot Human by The Windowpane Press & Thunderhoney Production
Artist statement: “I have been fascinated with the figure of the fugitive ‘advertised for capture’ as illustrated by various cuts frequently found in runaway slave advertisements. These images accompanied ads appearing in numerous 18th and 19th century newspapers in the United States, the Caribbean and as far flung as Brazil and England.
“The iconic figures of a man and woman form the foundation of the series: ‘kNot free kNot human.’ Each escaping figure toting a bundle or sack, containing the scant possessions of the possessed appeared, in flight, for centuries. While they were running towards an uncertain future, they were, also, symbols of and testament to the unceasing resistance perpetuated on all sides of the Atlantic by the captives. Wilson re-imagines the iconic runaway slave advertisement. Text and image evoke the complexity of the predicament that binds individuals to a body that they cannot claim as their own.”
Carletta Carrington Wilson is a literary, mixed-media, and installation artist. She is the author of Poem of Stone & Bone: The Iconography of James W. Washington Jr. in Fourteen Stanzas and Thirty-One Days. Her poems appear in, “The African American Review”, “Cimarron Review”, “Obsidian III”, and others.
Processes, Dimensions, and Edition Information
By Bonnie Thompson Norman and Carletta Carrington Wilson
Seattle, Washington: The Windowpane Press & Thunderhoney Production, 2023. Edition of 10.22 x 15 x 2” closed, 180 x 15 x 2” extended; 14 pages. Accordion book with hand-colored linoleum prints using metal and wood type. Printed yellow silk clamshell case bound. Letterpress printed and hand bound by Bonnie Thompson Norman. Hand carved, hand colored linocut illustrations and poetry by Carletta Carrington Wilson. Binding structure formed with knots based on a binding structure designed by Daniel Kelm. Printed on Blue Magnani Pescia paper. Covers and clamshell box painted with the artist’s hands and feet on gold Japanese book cloth. Signed and numbered by hand by the artist and printer.