Shawn Smith     

May 5-June 22, 2007

Shawn Smith,born in Dallas, TX, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in printmaking in 1995.  Mr. Smith now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has been making objects and installations using books as his primary media.  His current work explores books as consumable information, banned books, and the re-contextualization of books into everyday objects and tools for learning.

Over the past two years, Mr. Smith has taken to baking, frying and candy coating books in order to present them as enticing delicacies to be consumed.  New to this series is his Chocolate Covered Shakespeare Sampler, a complete set of Shakespeare’s work cut into bite sized pieces, decorated and placed in wrappers made from the pages of Shakespeare’s criticism.  In addition to his pseudo-edibles, Smith has recently completed a series of marionettes depicting main characters from banned and challenged books.  Each puppet is crafted from the book itself.  The characters wear their fate in the form of prison uniforms sewn from the pages of the controversial books.