All Sinners Welcome

All Sinners Welcome explores do-it-yourself or “DIY” religion in America. Photographs of storefront churches, quirky handmade church signs and expressions of faith in the landscape have captured my eye over six years of travel and are a segment of my favorite topic: our commercial and cultural landscape. Raised a Catholic, organized, sanctioned religion is familiar territory. As an adult I consider myself more of an agnostic and find “disorganized” religion much more interesting. The motivation to hang a sign on a building and call it a church is fascinating even beyond my usual interest in typography and signage in the landscape. This book is a celebration of our country’s freedom of religion, freedom of speech and our undying do-it-yourself, entrepreneurial spirit.

Page two of this book features a “word cloud” poem created using an InDesign script called Wordilyzer. The words in the poem are taken from the tag lines and sayings on the nearly 200 signs that I photographed over the last six years. The script generates a word cloud of the most frequently used words. The larger the word, the more frequently it was used on the signs.

The book has been in progress for a few years. It’s first incarnation was as a slide video I created for a Slideluck Potshow event here in Portland. This video is what I like to call an “artist book unbound.” Check out the video here.

 

Laura Russell
All Sinners Welcome
Limited Edition Artist Book
$375

To purchase this book contact Laura.

Or, click here to purchase online at 23 Sandy.

Post and screw binding. Translucent Coroplast corrugated plastic cover with press on letters designed to mimic the handmade signs or standing sandwich board signs found in many of the photographs. Digital archival printing on Red River Polar Matte paper (copies 1-6) or Mohawk Superfine (copies 7-25). 11 x 12.5 x .8 inches or 28 x 32 x 20 cm (w x h x d). 27 pages, 24 original color photographs by the artist. Signed and Numbered. Edition of 25. 2012. 

All Sinners Welcome by Laura Russell

 

All Sinners Welcome by Laura Russell

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