SPRING 2024
“…it is tough to convey what you are but you are doing it loud, clear, poetic, stark, dark, thoughtful..so much Felicia..it is an important voice, breathe into that…” —from a friend, Nanda Currant
My MPP and IMDI projects are merging with new media explorations in a powerful river of art and action. Please join me to celebrate art and community on the evening of Second Saturday, June 8, with an exhibit of drawings on Main Street in Mendocino. Black and white ink drawings of the movement of air above and what lies below, from the shoulders of the wind to the grit beneath my nails.
I graduated from Mendo High in the early ’70s just as the area was flooding with young people eager to build a new vibrant community. I have returned to town after 50 years to discover that the arts have taken a backseat to commerce. I miss seeing art all over town in every nook and cranny. Now is the time to be noisy and visible—agitate, disrupt, contribute, and work for a viable future—to dig deep and find joy.
DRAWINGS IN MENDOCINO POP UP
“CURRENTS: Drawings by Felicia Rice” at Ad Hoc Mendocino Legal, 45160 Main St :: June 8-9 from 11-4pm, reception on June 8 from 5-8pm, PLUS poetry reading with youth poets Frej Barty and Phannarai Inkun on June 9 at 2pm
INTERNATIONAL MUSHROOM DYE INSTITUTE
For those who don’t know, I am the current president of the non-profit IMDI, founded in 1985 by my mom, Miriam C. Rice (peeking out above).
Mendocino Film Festival :: Try It and See: The Story Behind Mushroom Dyes celebrating Dorothy Beebee (above right), premiering in Mendocino Film Festival on June 1 at 10am
Mendocino Art Center :: “Mushrooms | Color | Art and Craft” exhibit of works from Dorothy Beebee’s notebooks and from the collection of the IMDI board to accompany film premiere, May 23-June 3
MPP BOOKS IN NEW YORK
Museo del Barrio Tienda :: VENUS ENVY: Chapters I-IV with Amalia Mesa-Bains’s retrospective “Archeology of Memory” May 2-August 11 (above left)
The Grolier Club :: CODEX ESPANGLIENSIS in “Language, Decipherment and Translation—from Then to Now” February 28-May 11
HEAVY LIFTING PROJECT
St. Helena :: The White Barn on April 21 at 4 pm, dedicated to Paulo Ferreira, raised $1700 for Providence Hospice in Napa
PLEASE NOTE Chico :: 1078 Gallery, rescheduled to Fall ’24
Santa Cruz :: Felton Branch of Santa Cruz Public Library on August 24 at 2pm, marks the 4th anniversary of CZU Lightning Complex Fire
Prague, CZ :: GAMU Gallery “Louder” February 23-March 29
Sebastopol :: Sebastopol Center for the Arts “Pulp: Book and Paper Arts” April 6-May 5, awarded 2nd place thanks to juror Donna Seager
Mill Valley :: Seager Gray Gallery “Art of the Book” May 1-30
Mendocino Film Festival: On Heavy Lifting in Reel Mendo on June 2 at 5pm
LATINX | CHICANX | POETX
The Latinx | Chicanx | Poetx Broadside Series is growing. Every three months Angel Dominguez, Hannah Kezema, and I (above center) meet in the shop for an intensive two-day session to print new broadsides in this ongoing series. If you like this idea, let me know if you are interested in WWOOLFing at MPP. It’s a thing.
STAY IN TOUCH, PLEASE
Please stay in touch. I am not participating in social media on a regular basis. The best way to follow my news is to receive this newsletter or visit movingpartspress.com. Call or email anytime.
WINTER 2024
“Anything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” —Mahatma Gandhi
In the 1970s at a time when many of us believed that nuclear holocaust was imminent (isn’t it?) and that all art was political (right?), I established Moving Parts Press to gather poets and artists around my small letterpress print shop in our tiny alternative business community. At the time I used this quote from Gandhi on my invoices. Almost 50 years later, the world is still on fire, the effort is still small, and I am still moved to bear witness through the work of the Press. Read about the first ten years of MPP in the FPBA journal Parenthesis 45, Autumn 2023 issue, “Letterpress and Fine Craft in Santa Cruz” by Mary Thomas.
Heavy Lifting
• HEAVY LIFTING is coming to the CODEX Artists’ Book Fair from February 4-7, 2024 at the HJK Convention Center, Oakland CA. Please stop by and introduce yourself, I would love to introduce you to Heavy Lifting. Several copies of the standard edition ($2700) and just one copy of the deluxe edition ($3400) are available.
• HEAVY LIFTING is an artists’ book by Felicia Rice, in collaboration with poet Theresa Whitehill. Born of the many challenges of the covid years, it is a story of crisis and renewal. The Heavy Lifting project also includes an extensive listening tour that features an experimental film, poetry readings, and straight talk. In 2023 Theresa and I visited nine communities affected by fire throughout California and as far north as Seattle. Follow the tour here for upcoming locations including the IAS, Santa Cruz (Mar 3, 3:00pm); The White Barn, St. Helena (Apr 21 4:00); and 1078 Gallery, Chico (May 19 3:00pm). A review of the book by Inge Bruggeman appears in Parenthesis 45, Autumn 2023.
• HEAVY LIFTING will be exhibited in “Rydell Visual Arts Fellows 2006-2021” from January 27-March 24, 2024 at M. K. Contemporary Art, 703 Front St. Santa Cruz. I was honored to receive a Rydell Fellowship in 2009.
New in MPP Bookshop
• Joyce Campbell and Leo Eloesser, a tribute by Juan Pascoe to his neighbors in Tacámbaro, Mexico. Leo Eloesser, a SF-based surgeon, developed a unique surgical procedure in the wake of WWI that helped save my husband Jim’s life one hundred years later. This digitally printed edition is published in collaboration with Taller Martín Pescador.
• War News, 24 poems by Beau Beausoleil written in response to the Israeli-Hamas War appears in the MPP Digital Poetry Series. More of Beau’s WAR NEWS poems are available in the online journal, AGITATE!
Events
• Saturday, March 2 at 11 am :: Aptos Branch Library, 7695 Soquel Drive, Aptos
In 1986, Sherwood Grover died leaving me his entire letterpress print shop, a treasure trove of the finest type and tools. Sherwood and Trina Grover worked for the renowned Grabhorn Press in San Francisco for 25 years. Long overdue, the library will host the first celebration of the husband-wife team, “Memories of Sherwood & Tina Grover and Their Grace Hoper Press” on Saturday, March 2 at 11am. I will give a short talk about my teacher and benefactor, Sherwood Grover.
• Sunday, March 3 at 3 pm :: Institute for Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz
After some delay, poet Theresa Whitehill and I bring the Heavy Lifting Listening Tour to Santa Cruz!
Interviews
• Cascadia Prophets with Theresa Whitehill, interviewed by Paul E. Nelson
• The Babblery interviewed by Suki Wessling
• Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art, interviewed by Mary Thomas
More
Explore links to all this and more here for the latest news and tales from my past 50 years as a printer, artist, and publisher. As a printer, my job is to confront complex issues and render my response to them in book form. As an artist, my job is to do so with profound integrity. As a publisher, my job is to make these issues public. As printers have done every decade since Gutenberg, I’m here to argue for a more just society.
Finally
My parents, Ray and Miriam Rice, were lifelong artists. Ever since the devastating fire in 2020 that took Moving Parts Press, Jim and I have been living in the Rice family home in the beautiful town of Mendocino. I have been able to build a new studio funded entirely by your donations — thank you! You can learn about my parents and their work at rayandmiriamrice.com and mushroomsforcolor.com. Recently, I received a note from Jes Simmons who found a 1949 painting by Ray Rice in a Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Virginia. Jes has donated “Arizona Sky” to the Longwood Center for the Arts in Farmville. It’s a complete mystery how the painting traveled 2000 miles from Arizona to arrive in a store for used household items 75 years later. And my mom’s pioneering research into mushroom dyeing has put her on CNN Style. Amazing!
Be strong,
Felicia
SUMMER 2023
INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ONLINE
The Babblery: interview with Suki Wessling upcoming
The Cutting Edge KSQD 90.7 FM: interview with Felicia Rice by Tim Fitzmaurice, 2023 July 9
WINTER 2023
AT LAST! Invitation
Please join Felicia, and her two Mendocino High interns, for a zoom press warming party — at last!
Zoom into Moving Parts Press to celebrate the resurrection of the Press from the ashes to complete recovery from a devastating megafire in 2020. Walk through the brand new, beautiful space. See the brand new artists’ book, Heavy Lifting. Raise a toast to the over 800 donors who made this possible!
Zoom: Thursday January 19, 2023 (6:00 pm PST) For zoom information, RSVP here!
NEW! Heavy Lifting
First conceived in 2019, this limited edition artists’ book, Heavy Lifting, took flight in spite of and because of both our personal and collective crises of the past three years. The innovative book structure of nested accordion-fold panels features stunning poems by Theresa Whitehill in compelling conversation with prints by Felicia Rice.
The book is just one facet of the Heavy Lifting Project which also includes a companion book, an experimental film, and ongoing community engagement:
• The Heavy Lifting Companion book features Theresa’s poetry, with a preface by Inge Bruggeman, Director of the CODEX Foundation, and essays by Felicia. Available here.
• On Heavy Lifting is a film experiment that draws on readings of Theresa’s poems, live footage of the bookmaking process, and digital projection with dance to create an immersive experience of the artists’ book.
• The Heavy Lifting listening tour aspires to healing through dialogue. It begins February 23 in Ukiah and will occur each month of 2023 in communities throughout northern California. Schedule here.
• The artists’ book, Heavy Lifting, will be on display at the Mendocino Art Center Jan 6–Feb 24, 2023.
For more information, contact me at frice@movingpartspress.com
FINALLY! MPP Bookshop
The first book in my new online bookshop is VENUS ENVY: Chapters I–IV by Amalia Mesa-Bains, a photo-based artists’ book documenting her four-part Venus Envy Series. Amalia’s retrospective exhibition opens on February 4 at BAMPFA. Available directly from Moving Parts Press at movingpartspress.com/shop.
SUMMER 2022
We did it!
Just two years after the terrible mega-fire that burned the Moving Parts Press shop to the ground, MPP is moving into its new studio, a beautiful building originally designed by my father over forty years ago. It is the realization of a dream that would have been out of reach without your help.
Thank you!
Rising from the ashes: 800 individuals, institutions, and organizations donated to the construction of this new building right next to the Rice family home here in Mendocino. In October I will invite you to the zoom press warming party, along with an in-person open house. Please plan to visit when you are in the area.
Here is a quick video of the brand new shop.
New!
VENUS ENVY: Chapters I–IV with Amalia Mesa-Bains is a commercially-printed accordion-fold artists’ book of photographs. The book documents the four-part Venus Envy Series of immersive installations completed over several decades by Amalia Mesa-Bains to chronicle four chapters in her life as a Chicana woman. Available directly from Moving Parts Press at frice@movingpartspress.com. $38
Now!
IN UKRAINE: Poems by Beau Beausoleil is the third in the Digital Poetry Series published on the MPP website. This series of 75 spare and striking poems responds to the unprovoked and illegal war on Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin and maintained by those who fear him.
Progress!
The limited edition artists’ book, HEAVY LIFTING, is on track for publication at the end of the year. The outcome of a collaboration with poet/designer Theresa Whitehill, the book—along with an experimental video, and ongoing community engagement—grapples with both the personal and collective crises of the last three years, and takes a hard look at what comes next. Details and subscription available at frice@movingpartspress.com.
Rising!
I once more want to thank each and every one of you who made all of this possible. It is through your generosity that Moving Parts Press has found its new home.
SPRING 2022
Two new, and very different, publications out this spring. The first, VENUS ENVY: Chapters I–IV with Amalia Mesa-Bains, is a commercially-printed accordion-fold artists’ book of photographs. The book debuts in the SFMOMA Museum Store in conjunction with the exhibition, Amalia Mesa-Bains: Venus Envy, Chapter I and Madrinas y Hermanas (Godmothers and Sisters). The second, In Ukraine: Poems by Beau Beausoleil, is the third in the Digital Poetry Series, poems published here on the Moving Parts Press site only.
The priority for both projects has been to get the word out as widely as possible. My mantra: As a printer, my job is to confront complex issues and render my response in book form. As an artist, my job is to do so with profound integrity. As a publisher, my job is to make these issues public. As printers have done every decade since Gutenberg, I’m here to argue for a more just society.
The CODEX International Book Fair took place at the beautiful Craneway Pavilion in Richmond CA from April 10-13, 2022, with over 200 presses represented from around the globe. I showcased my new book with poet Theresa Whitehill, HEAVY LIFTING, at Table #73. These photos were taken at the 2007, 2013, 2015, 2019, and 2022 CODEX International Book Fairs. I haven’t changed a bit, only the glasses, right?
WINTER 2022
KQED Arts & Culture
Two articles have come out on the KQED Arts & Culture site, both by the excellent journalist Nastia Voynovskaya:
After Wildfire, a Family of Artists Faces the Cultural Losses of Climate Change, published September 4, 2020, covered the utter devastation of Moving Parts Press by the August 2020 wildfires in the Santa Cruz Mtns.
How Artist Felicia Rice Rebuilt Her Life After Losing Her Home in a Wildfire just came out on February 28, 2022 and follows up on the progress of my recovery over the last 18 months.
Deep thanks to Nastia for caring and for the embrace of our amazing community.
There are books that radiate light into the world—luminous objects that reflect the hands that made them. Everything depends upon the right relationship between an idea and its maker. Everything depends upon the light.”—Peter Koch
The organizers of BAM! Book Arts Mendocino!, along with Partners Gallery, are truly honored to offer a short talk by good friend and colleague, Peter Rutledge Koch. Please consider joining us for this historic moment in Northern California bookmaking.
On Saturday, February 12 at 4:30pm PST, Peter Koch, longtime Bay Area letterpress printer, designer, and publisher, presented “Meditations on the Humanist Side of Printing” in a virtual talk on Zoom. The entire talk is now available online here.
In 1974 Peter Koch founded a letterpress printing office in Missoula, Montana. Four years later he moved his press to the San Francisco Bay Area — where he continues to work today at Peter Koch Printers. In 2005 he and his wife Susan Filter created The CODEX Foundation to preserve and promote the arts of the book.
It’s happening: BAM! Book Arts Mendocino! Two months of all things BOOK on the coast and inland communities of Mendocino County during a time when a constructive cultural perspective is so badly needed.
Participants include bookstores, libraries, galleries, museums, local bookbinders, poets, book artists, papermakers, printmakers, publishers, authors…two dozen and counting. Any organization or individual is welcome to participate in association with BAM! Just let us know you’d like to join in.
It all began with a feature article in REM magazine about three letterpress printers: Zida Borcich, Theresa Whitehill, and me. This led to an invitation to exhibit our work at the Partners Gallery. At that point we thought, why not invite those of us who make or publish books on the coast to join us in a celebration of all things BOOK and all those who love books!
“Three Letterpress Printers Walk Into a Shed” runs January 6 through March 6. We open on January 8 (5-7 pm) with a second opening on February 12. Watch for Peter Koch’s talk on Zoom on February 12 (4:30-5 pm).
FALL 2021
The story continues. Zida Borcich, longtime colleague and fellow letterpress printer, publishes and edits the REM for Mendocino County. I’m honored to be in these pages with Zida and my collaborator, poet Theresa Whitehill. Here is the latest chapter in my story in my new home, Mendocino. Download pdf here.
SUMMER 2021
Reclamation : Artists’ Books On The Environment
ONLINE Artist Reception :: Friday, July 2, 2021 5 – 6 pm PDT
SPRING 2021
New broadside from hit & run press, “Bringing Flowers to Salinas Valley State Prison” by Ellen Bass, with drawing by Felicia Rice.
WINTER 2021
Stirring the cauldron
Welcome 2021! Moving Parts Press is rising from the ashes of the August fire that completely destroyed the shop, including irreplaceable type and all of my artists’ books. The Phoenix, the bird that springs anew from the ashes of its predecessor, is a natural metaphor for my first response to save what could not be destroyed: the heart and soul of the Press. Five months later, as the dark of winter sets in, I find myself slowly stirring the bubbling cultural mix that is the fuel for my work, feeding the fire, watching the steam rise, building on longstanding relationships, and seeking connections in my new community.
Fire recovery
Phase 1: This fall was dedicated to creating a safe space for the next iteration of Moving Parts Press. Here in my tiny shed, where it is largely warm and dry, I have wrapped up the most pressing needs of recovery: acquiring basic tools and finding new sources for materials and services, both online and locally.
Phase 2: This winter I am happy to be picking up where I left off on several projects, especially a major new book for 2022 with poet Theresa Whitehill. The plans for a new studio have been submitted for the first required permit, with construction possible next summer.
Fundraising
For Moving Parts Press fire recovery: The gofundme fundraiser begun in September has been incredibly successful, and continues to be essential to the transition into a modest home for the Press. The shed I’m in is temporary, I’m happy to say we have pretty much stopped the worst of the leaks. Plans for a permanent home for the Press are based on drawings my father, Ray Rice, drew up in 1980 but never built. The spirit of my artist parents is alive here in Mendocino where they are still honored and cherished by the community. Their legacy has made our landing here soft and smooth. Please help raise Moving Parts Press from the ashes.
For Santa Cruz Mountains fire recovery: This fall I produced three broadsides to raise funds for fire recovery in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The broadsides feature poems addressing loss and recovery by Ellen Bass, Danusha Laméris, and Gary Young, with images by Grace Brieger, Gary Young, and myself. They are available online at Bookshop Santa Cruz which collaborated on this fundraiser. Thank you in advance for your help with rebuilding our mountain communities.
The Califas Legacy Project
This collaboration with Museo Eduardo Carrillo is busting out all over, even during a pandemic. Nine organizations from around the Monterey Bay Crescent are participating in this celebration of Latinx art from January-June 2021. Find the entire schedule here.
A series of banners of this artists’ book is on display in each library’s windows.
January 8, 2021 – ongoing
Santa Cruz Public Library
Watsonville Public Library
The latest book from Moving Parts Press, CALIFAS The Ancestral Journey/El Viaje Ancestral, is central to this exhibition of Central Coast legacy artists in dialog with a new generation of Chicanx/Latinx artists.
January 8 – April 11, 2021
Monterey Museum of Art
January 9, 2021 (10-5 pm)
CALIFAS artists panel, including Felicia Rice 10:30-11:30 am
Hosted by Monterey Museum of Art
January 26, 2021 (3-4 pm PST)
Hosted by Columbia University Libraries
A panel discussion moderated by Rachel Nelson, Director, IAS
January 28, 2021 (5-6:30 pm)
Hosted by UCSC Special Collections and Institute of the Arts & Sciences
FALL 2020
Recovering and relocating
A massive wildfire in August destroyed my shop and my entire archive of books. We immediately relocated to the Rice family home in Mendocino. I was lucky to find a small Vandercook proof press nearby and, with the help of many amazing supporters, get a small shop up and running within three months. My first project was to print new broadsides to help raise funds for the Santa Cruz community. The broadsides are available now at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
The shop is now situated in a shed less than 15% of the size of the Bonny Doon space. In my visits to the burn site I found just one rivulet of lead, all that is left of my 150 cases of type. My goal is to rebuild the shop with beautiful fonts of metal type and enough space to create beautiful limited edition artists’ books.
Please contribute to the effort to Raise Moving Parts Press from the ashes!
Rising, with your help…
SUMMER 2020
Shop and archive incinerated in wildfire!
On August 20, 2020 a massive fire storm hit the ridge where Moving Parts Press had stood for 25 years. Ignited by lightning strikes in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned over 86,000 acres before it was contained over a month later. The Press, along with our home, was one of 925 residences destroyed by the fire. Learn more.
Please contribute to this recovery effort to Raise Moving Parts Press from the ashes!
SPRING 2020
A VIRUS HELD US: POEMS OF THE PANDEMIC
New poems by Lynne Ellis marking the phases of the pandemic in the form of two broadsides for posting or printing. Lynne is the recipient of the 2018 Red Wheelbarrow poetry prize which resulted in the Moving Parts Press broadside, Seamstress, with a relief print by Felicia Rice
SPRING 2020
Beau Beausoleil is a white poet and activist who has written a series of poems in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, 2020. The poems stand in solidarity with demonstrations against systemic racism around the world. Read the poems and find a broadside of A Summary of Guidelines for Extrajudicial Police Street Sentencing of African Americans to share widely here.
SPRING 2020
Hello from home
During this time of pandemic, the imminent collapse of the world as we know it becomes more and more real. Rather than pushing it to the back of our minds or the bottom of our hearts, we are forced to live day to day with the uncertainty of the unknown, and to live with the certainty that our deeply flawed, yet familiar, society will be replaced by a new paradigm, one that we each have an opportunity to describe. We now face an unknown world on the verge of revealing itself through our collective imaginations.
As a printer, my job is to confront complex issues and render my response in book form. As an artist, my job is to do so with profound integrity. As a publisher, my job is to make these issues public. This spring I’m quarantined at home with all my tools right here and the time to use them to fulfill these aims.
New
Available June 1—THE NECROPOLITICS OF EXTRACTION with TJ Demos
This artist’s book collaboration with TJ Demos is my contribution to the CODEX Foundation’s project, “Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss.” In this accordion-fold book, one long print commenting on the rapacious aspects of extraction resolves in a call to action with Demos’ essay and the words, “To make the impossible gradually possible, there is no other choice.” The book is bound by Craig Jensen of BookLab II (pictured). An edition of 40 will be available on June 1, 2020. Reserve your copy now.
CALIFAS: The Ancestral Journey / El Viaje Ancestral with Museo Eduardo Carrillo
This collaborative artists’ book grows out of the Califas Legacy Project led by Museo Eduardo Carrillo, which documents four decades of the work of five Chicano/a/x artists from the Central Coast region—Yermo Aranda (2020 Santa Cruz Artist of the Year), Eduardo Carrillo (1937-1997), Ralph D’Oliveira, Carmen León, and Amalia Mesa-Bains — in a documentary film, a series of exhibitions, both physical and online, as well as this book co-published with Moving Parts Press. There are three versions of this accordion-fold book: 1) one original copy; 2) seven digitally-printed, full-size facsimiles for the collaborators; and 3) 750 commercially-printed copies reduced in scale to be donated to public institutions on the Central Coast.
Backlist
BORDERBUS with Juan Felipe Herrera
The world’s many crises have been eclipsed by the coronavirus pandemic, but the humanitarian emergency continues at the US-Mexico border. Thanks to all who purchased this book and in doing so contributed to aid organizations working to respond to the inhumanity at our southern border. Just three copies left—
THE LONG DISTANCE with Beau Beausoleil
Seventeen spare poems capture elusive thoughts and touch on subtle feelings, while registering complicated responses to the political issues of our times. Illustrated with prints by Felicia Rice. An edition of 55 signed and numbered copies.
Ongoing
LATINX / CHICANX / POETX Broadside Series
This series of fifteen broadsides by contemporary queer Latinx/Chicanx poets is co-edited with Angel Dominguez and Hannah Kezema. Our Thursday afternoons together are very much hampered by the stay-at-home order, but I am continuing to work on the project with Hannah’s input from six feet away. So far we have completed broadsides by Angel Dominguez, raquel salas rivera, and Josiah Luis Alderete. An edition of 60, of which 30 boxed sets will be available in 2023.
Upcoming
VENUS ENVY with Amalia Mesa-Bains
A collaboration in book form celebrating the series of altar installations by Amalia Mesa-Bains which join the sacred and the secular in a personal narrative. A very small edition will be available in Spring 2021.
THE OAK
A dive into the life and then loss of a magnificent oak on our property, this artist’s book is a reflection on the dwindling and disappearance of whole species on our planet and a call for environmental justice. An edition of forty will be available in Spring 2021.
WINTER 2020
Updates
BORDERBUS with Juan Felipe Herrera
This artist’s book of Juan Felipe’s moving poem came out almost one year ago, amazing. Thanks to all who purchased the book and in doing so contributed to aid organizations working to respond to the inhumanity at the US-Mexico border. Just a few copies left—
On the press
THE NECROPOLITICS OF EXTRACTION with TJ Demos
This collaboration with TJ Demos is my contribution to the CODEX Foundation’s project, “Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss.” The book will be back from the binder, Craig Jensen, in time for publication this spring. More about this in the coming months.
CALIFAS: The Ancestral Journey / El Viaje Ancestral with Museo Eduardo Carrillo
This collaborative artists’ book grows out of the Califas Legacy Project led by Museo Eduardo Carrillo, which documents four decades of the work of five Chicano/a/x artists from the Central Coast region—Yermo Aranda (2020 Santa Cruz Artist of the Year), Eduardo Carrillo (1937-1997), Ralph D’Oliveira, Carmen León (pictured), and Amalia Mesa-Bains. Publication will roll out between June and September.
Latinx/Chicanx/Poetix
This series of fifteen broadsides focuses on contemporary Latinx/Chicanx poetry and is co-edited with Angel Dominguez and Hannah Kezema. So far Hannah and I have printed broadsides by Angel Dominguez and raquel salas rivera. An edition of thirty boxed sets will be available in 2023.
Exhibitions
February 2020: Little Giant Collective is showing work from the Santa Cruz community. Hannah Kezema and I contributed a print we made together this fall. Opening this Friday!
Talks
April 2020: I will be visiting Karen Holmberg’s teaching press at OSU in Corvallis. I’ll give a workshop and a talk. Karen is writing on Moving Parts Press for “Impressions, Vol. 2: Essays on the Art of Printing” from The Legacy Press.
UC Santa Barbara: In January 2021 I will be speaking in Special Collections where the Moving Parts Press archive resides. The archive includes the library of Sherwood Grover who bequeathed his print shop to me when he died in 1986. I am in the process of finding a new home for his beautiful Victoria platen press.
FALL 2019
Updates
My artist residency in July at the ArtMill in southwestern Bohemia was amazing, a jam-packed two weeks living and working with fantastic people that opened up exciting new areas of inquiry.
I’ve made substantial donations from the sales of BORDERBUS to Al Otro Lado and Monarch Midwives, organizations doing urgently needed work in response to the crisis at the US-Mexico border.
Talks
Chicano and Chicana Art Roundtable: a roundtable discussion about the recently published book, Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology :: October 8, 2019 :: UC Santa Cruz
2019 Reva and David Logan Symposium on the Artist’s Book: Borderland: Visual Poetics in Artists’ Books :: October 12, 2019 :: Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco
On the press
Necropolititcs of Extraction, a collaborative artist’s book with T.J. Demos, director of The Center for Creative Ecologies. Publication date: May 2020.
SUMMER 2019
On the press
For many years summer was my only time to focus on my work in the shop for an extended period. Since leaving my desk job two years ago, I can print at any time. But old habits die hard and this summer I am hard at work on a new book, The Necropolitics of Extraction, with text by TJ Demos embedded in my images. The book will be my contribution to the CODEX Foundation’s project Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss. Publication date: 2020.
Summer artist residency
This summer I will be a visiting artist with Art Dialogue at the Art Mill in the Czech Republic. The Art Mill is located two hours outside of Prague in the countryside in southwestern Bohemia. During my stay nine international artists will arrive to collaborate with eleven local women in an ambitious two-year project, CIVIC WOMEN: community visions. I’ll be busy with my own work in my studio there but look forward to playing a role in CIVIC WOMEN and making new connections. If you know any book people I should look up in Prague, please send their contact information.
BORDERBUS trifold
Juan Felipe Herrera writes on our artists’ book, BORDERBUS: “The border is a container of human beings detained, shackled with our agreements. We cannot detain words. Do you agree? Women’s words. This book, contains what could not be contained. It is up to you to open it. A new agreement of who we are and what we are is possible. Liberate it—with your words.”
In Spring 2019, members of Juan Felipe Herrera’s Laureate Lab Visual Wordlist Studio at Fresno State University developed a trifold print piece in response to BORDERBUS and to signify their efforts to reach out for another and speak. If you’re interested in acquiring a copy of the brochure, just let me know and I will mail it to you.
Several copies of BORDERBUS are still available. Remember, 10% of the proceeds from the sale of BORDEBUS is donated to support aid projects at the US-Mexico border where the deeply disturbing humanitarian crisis continues.
WINTER 2019
Two new books from Moving Parts Press and two from the backlist. Three back-to-back events in Santa Cruz featuring Moving Parts press authors — Beau Beausoleil, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Juan Felipe Herrera.
• NEW BORDERBUS
One long poem by recent US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera with prints and book work by Felicia Rice
Limited edition artists’ book in standard and deluxe editions
March 6 6:30-9 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
BORDERBUS: A Community Conversation about Migration, Art, and Social Justice Juan Felipe Herrera and Felicia Rice in conversation, joined by representatives of local groups working on social justice and immigration issues. In celebration of the publication of the new Moving Parts Press book, BORDERBUS!
• NEW THE LONG DISTANCE
Seventeen poems by San Francisco poet Beau Beausoleil with prints by Felicia Rice
Handset and letterpress printed by Felicia Rice with Jared Cortez
March 4 7-9 pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz
Al-Mutanabbi Street Reading Beau Beausoleil and others read poems and prose in honor of those who died twelve years ago in the car bombing of Al-Mutanabbi, the booksellers’ street in Baghdad, Iraq. The Santa Cruz debut of the new Moving Parts Press book, THE LONG DISTANCE!
• Still available DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática
Seven-year collaboration with Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Jennifer González, Felicia Rice, Gustavo Vazquez, and Zachary James Watkins
Limited edition artists’ book in standard and deluxe editions here, and trade edition co-published with City Lights Books here
March 5 7-9 pm
Second Stage, Theater Arts, UCSC
The Most (un) Documented Mexican Artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña in performance with Balitronica Gomez and Saul Garcia Lopez
• Still available CODEX ESPANGLIENSIS From Columbus to the Border Patrol
Facsimile of limited edition artists’ book by Felicia Rice, Enrique Chagoya and Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Trade edition co-published with City Lights Books
NEW BOOKS IN 2019
Look for announcements of upcoming publication events for two new Moving Parts books!
BORDERBUS is a rendering of one long poem by Juan Felipe Herrera in which two women held on an ICE bus at the US border share their most intense fears and deepest beliefs. This limited edition artists’ book features prints by the artist/publisher throughout and includes readings of the poem, plus an introduction by Carmen Giménez Smith.
THE LONG DISTANCE is a letterpress book of seventeen poems by San Francisco poet, Beau Beausoleil. These spare poems are written in the narrow margins of love alongside shards of waking dreams and find place within our country’s vicious history. Handset and printed with Moving Parts Press assistant, Jared Cortez, with four prints by the artist/publisher.
CRAFT IN AMERICA: VISIOVISIONARIES
On December 21, 2018 the newest episode, Visionaries, of PBS’s award-winning documentary series Craft in America airs nationwide. Craft in America: Visionaries features Moving Parts books BORDERBUS and DOC/UNDOC. If you miss the episode, you will be able to find it at craftinamerica.org/episodes/visionaries after December 21.
FALL 2018
CRAFT IN AMERICA: VISIONARIES
On October 20, 2018 the Getty Research Institute presents the world premiere of the newest episode, Visionaries, from PBS’s award-winning documentary series Craft in America. This episode features my work and that of three others. More information and tickets here. The episode will air on PBS stations nationwide on December 21, 2018. View the short with my husband, Jim Schoonover. And another short with me on my January 2019 publication, BORDERBUS.
This screening complements the exhibition Artists and Their Books / Books and Their Artists, which includes the collaborative artists’ book, DOC/UNDOC, now on view at the Getty Research Institute until October 28, 2018.
NEW WEBSITE
I’ve created a website, rayandmiriamrice.com, dedicated to the work of my parents and teachers, Ray and Miriam Rice, mid-century Northern California artists. Their lives of deep integrity, continuous inquiry, and intense productivity are truly amazing – models not only for their daughter, but for all working artists. See Ray’s experimental animated films. Learn about Miriam’s research into mushroom dyes. Add your own recollections of Ray and Miriam.
EXHIBITION
Máxima Expresión: Otra Forma de Ver y Hacer Los Libros
Biblioteca de México in Mexico DF during 4ta Expo Feria Nacional Artes y Oficios del Libro
October 18 – November 16, 2018
SUMMER 2018
The UC Santa Barbara Library has acquired the Moving Parts Press archive. The archive includes print material documenting forty years of press history, creative process, and relationships, along with Sherwood Grover’s typographic library. It will be available to students and scholars for educational purposes and research.
The MPP artists’ book, DOC/UNDOC, is on display at the Getty Research Institute in an exhibition titled, “Artists and Their Books, Books and Their Artists,” from June 26 – October 28, 2018. A book, also titled Artists and Their Books, Books and Their Artists, accompanies the exhibition and includes over one hundred important examples selected from the Getty Research Institute’s Special Collections of more than six thousand editions and unique artists’ books.
CRAFT IN AMERICA: VISIONARIES
Felicia Rice will be featured in the PBS series, Craft in America: Visionaries. VISIONARIES documents the ways in which artists and influencers create new methods and inspire new generations to envision the limitless possibilities of craft. Featuring weaver Kay Sekimachi, textile designer and founder of the LongHouse Reserve Jack Lenor Larsen, along with book artist Rice. The episode will air on PBS on December 21, 2018.
INTERVIEW
NEW 2018 Whirligig interview by Kent Manske and Nanette Wylde with Felicia Rice.
NEW trade edition: DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática
The trade edition of DOC/UNDOC is now available from City Lights Books. This book presents every aspect of this original collaborative artists’ book in its entirety, including sound and video on a usb drive. There will be a book launch at Canessa Gallery on Feb 1 ’18 and at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Feb 20 ’18.
“Felicia Rice is one of the most exemplary book artists in the United States. Her collaborations with Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Enrique Chagoya have transcended every tradition and formal expectation that we have concerning the book as a work of art. Her new collaboration with Gómez-Peña, Doc/Undoc, is a brilliant exposition of the best of two worlds—art and political action.”—Peter Rutledge Koch, The Codex Foundation
“The bleeding flaming heart of this book is a cornucopia of shamanic defenses against racism. It’s a magical toolbox filled with implements to use for safe border crossings, a prayerbook for the deconstruction of oppressive stereotypes, and a guide for the creation of liberated identities and revolutionary entities. This is not a book to be just read, it’s a book to be performed, enacted and realized.”—Marshall Weber, Artist/Curator at Booklyn
“ . . . the new edition of DOC/UNDOC more than merits a reading. . . . a sequel of sorts to [Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol] that extraordinary volume, DOC/UNDOC: Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática constitutes a more thoroughgoing effort to ‘re/imagine the future of bookmaking’ as a collaborative process that encompasses multiple media (‘old’ and ‘new’) and makers. . . . The oversize volume commences with striking, high resolution color photographs of the case opened to display the objects packed inside, as well as the mirrors affixed to it lid. Though you won’t see yourself or your masked personae in these images of mirrors, the edition does elicit less literal forms of reflection—personal and political—facilitated by the bookwork, which take the pains and pleasures of identity formation and transformation as its major subject.”—Jennifer Buckley, TDR: The Drama Review
Felicia Rice celebrates 40 years of books, broadsides, and prints
Opening reception: First Friday, December 1, 2017 5–9pm
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
In 1977 Felicia Rice set Moving Parts Press in motion. A letterpress printshop in downtown Santa Cruz, Moving Parts Press welcomed all kinds of print work, from business cards to book design. Then in 1981 Felicia published her first book, For Earthly Survival, by Santa Cruz poet Ellen Bass, the first of a series of handcrafted editions.
From the beginning the mission of the press was to give voice to those who would not otherwise be heard. For 40 years Felicia has collaborated with visual artists, performing artists, and writers to create book structures in which powerful language and striking images meet and merge.
Rice combines 19th-century bookmaking techniques with 21st-century digital technology to bring the flexibility of screen-based design to the texture and history of the letterpress-printed page. This exhibition includes books, broadsides, and prints from each of the periods that distinguish the 40-year history of Moving Parts Press.
Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here!
The 2016 article by Cathy deForest that features the print, Absence And Presence, by Felicia Rice.
DOC/UNDOC Documentado/Undocumented Ars Shamánica Performática
TEXT
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
VIDEO
Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Gustavo Vazquez
SOUND
Zachary Watkins
COMMENTARY
Jennifer González
PRINTS AND BOOKWORK
Felicia Rice
In this sequel to Moving Parts Press’s 1998 publication, CODEX ESPANGLIENSIS, Felicia collaborates once more with performance artist/writer Guillermo Gómez-Peña and art historian/critic Jennifer González, as well as video artist Gustavo Vazquez and sound artist/engineer Zachary Watkins.
DOC/UNDOC features Gómez-Peña’s performance texts and Felicia’s relief prints and typography, accompanied by González’s critical commentary. It is housed in a hi-tech aluminum case containing a DVD, an altar, and a cabinet of curiosities. Opening the case triggers light and Watkins’s interactive sound art.
An excerpt from FIVE HYMNS TO PAIN
TEXT
Nazik al-Malaika
TRANSLATION
Hasain Haddawy
PRINT AND BOOKWORK
Felicia Rice
Dedicated to the literary and intellectual community of al-Mutanabbi Street, an old and established center for booksellling in the heart of Baghdad, this book was produced for the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project. The poem was written by one of the most influential contemporary female Iraqi poets.
EL ALFABETO ANIMADO / The Lively Alphabet / Uywakunawan Qelqasqat
TEXT
Monica Brown
TRANSLATION
Jenny Callañaupa Huarhua
DRAWINGS AND BOOKWORK
Felicia Rice
INSPIRATION
Katie Jennings
This project grew out of a dream. The fourth book in the Chicano/Latino Series, it is an alphabet book in Spanish, English and Quechua. The book is populated by hand-knit finger puppets set in scenes drawn and printed at Moving Parts Press on a rainbow of cloth from Cuzco, Peru.
COSMOGONIE INTIME An Intimate Cosmogony
TEXT
Yves Peyré
TRANSLATION
Elizabeth R. Jackson
DRAWINGS
Ray Rice
BOOKWORK
Felicia Rice
A sequence of five long poems in French and English with pochoir imagery throughout.
CODEX ESPANGLIENSIS from Columbus to the Border Patrol
TEXT
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
IMAGERY
Enrique Chagoya
BOOKWORK
Felicia Rice
This artists’ book chronicles and confronts the realities and surrealities of border culture on the eve of the millennium.