“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”

— Rihanna

The National Museum of Women in the Arts

Rihanna could have been referring to Wilhelmina "Billie" Cole Holladay when she said those words. In 1981 Holladay co-founded the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., after discovering that most art history textbooks, (especially American textbooks), almost totally excluded female artists. With ther support of her husband Wallace, Holladay brought her grace, intelligence and fearlessness to an American art world dominated by men, and by refusing to say no, changed it forever.

If you have never been, please put the NMWA on your bucket list. The collection includes key works by Lee Krasner, Faith Ringgold, Nan Goldin, Shirin Neshat, Lalla Essaydi, Pipilotti Rist, Amy Sherald, and more (! can we please all go now?!) Frida Kahlo’s Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, (the only painting by Kahlo in D.C.) is in the collection, as is Ruth Orkin's iconic 1951 photograph American Girl in Italy. The museum’s Library holds roughly 25,000 pieces including books, prints, artist books, zines, the Judy Chicago Visual Archive, and correspondence from Frida Kahlo. In a deliciously ironic twist, the museum occupies a building built in 1908 as a Masonic temple, meaning that since 1987 it has taken over a space that for hundreds of years excluded women.

Inside the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.

As a way to advance the museum’s unique mission, the NMWA supports over thirty chapters in the U.S. and around the world. The Massachusetts chapter, headed up by Sarah Treco, is especially active, with upwards of 100 members and ten to twelve events per year.

These chapters collaborate with museum headquarters to curate the bi or triennial exhibition Women to Watch. Against the context of the erasure that inspired the museum’s founding, Women to Watch shines light on emerging or lesser-known women artists who deserve national and international attention. They do this through a working relationship with local curators familiar with deserving artists in their region. Women to Watch also spotlights natural, domestic, and craft-adjacent approaches, practices and mediums chronically undervalued by the art establishment.

Since the inaugural in 2008, each edition of Women to Watch has focused on a specific medium or theme.

2008 — Photography
2010 — Body of Work
2012 — High Fiber (including Rebecca Hutchinson of Massachusetts)
2015 — Organic Matters
2018 — Heavy Metal (including Tia Dale of Massachusetts)
2020 — Paper Routes
2024 — New Worlds (including Daniela Rivera representing Massachusetts.)

A Book Arts Revolution

The theme for the 2027 is A Book Arts Revolution, which will be on view at the museum from April to August 2027. Tia Blassingame, proprietor of Primrose Press and a book artist, printmaker, and scholar will guest curate the national exhibition along with NMWA liaison curator Elizabeth Ajunwa. A Book Arts Revolution will coincide with the museum's 40th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the Women to Watch series, and will focus on the place of book arts within contemporary art practices.

Book Arts is a collaborative discipline residing at the intersection of literature and art, and allowing for extreme creativity within the confines of the book concept. Artists incorporate a myriad of disciplines including painting, drawing, cutting, folding, carving; art history and research; literature and poetry; journalism; library science; philosophy; and digital technology. Many book artists practice paper making, letterpress printing, and book binding.

The Massachusetts Committee of NMWA (MA-NMWA) worked with John Buchtel, Curator of Rare Books and Head of Special Collections at the Boston Athenaeum, to select four Women to Watch artists: Amy Borezo, Sarah Hulsey, Abigail Rorer, and Anneli Skaar.

“I am honored and excited to be nominated for the NMWA 2027 Women to Watch awards in the field of Book Arts... It is especially meaningful that the National Museum of Women in the Arts is highlighting the book form as a vital artistic medium that continues to demonstrate material innovation, conceptual exploration, and cultural relevance.”

— Amy Borezo

Amy Borezo

Amy Borezo makes contemporary artist books that put text and image in dialogue and prompt new readings. Her graphic design, artworks and strategic use of color bring historic writing to life, inviting immersion and imagination. Amy owns Shelter Bookworks, an edition binding studio in Orange MA. Her artists' books are held in over thirty collections including Yale, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and the Library of Congress. She also collaborates with other book artists, including Anneli Skaar, a fellow nominee.

Amy Borezo, *The Colour out of Space*, by H.P. Lovecraft, introduction by S.T. Joshi. Images, design, and binding by Amy Borezo. 56 pages, 7.3125 x 10.3125”. Edition of 40. 2016. Photo by Amy Borezo.

Amy Borezo, *New Ocean,* Printed from photopolymer plates on Zerkall Book paper, 100 pgs, 10.25 x 6 x .625”. Edition of 40. Book includes six 10 x 24” landscape prints that fold, printed by Art Larson at Horton Tank Graphics. Copies 1-25 are standard edition, bound in quarter cloth and relief printed paper over boards. Photo by Amy Borezo.

“The interconnected systems of language—sound, structure, meaning—are suggested by multiple layers in my work. There is alternating tension and harmony between the strata, created by the relation of rectilinear elements to shapes derived from circles and curves... My work draws attention to linguistic patterns deep in our minds and their complex, hidden beauty.”

— Sarah Hulsey

Sarah Hulsey

Sarah Hulsey is a book artist who analyzes and illustrates the elegant structures operating at a subconscious level to make language and communication possible. Hulsey’s work draws upon on her background in linguistics, which she studied as an undergraduate at Harvard and as a graduate under Noam Chomsky at MIT. She now runs a studio in Somerville, Massachusetts and teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her books are held in collections around the world, including Amherst College, Boston University, Harvard and MIT in Massachusetts.

Sarah Hulsey, *Asterisms: A Phonemic Exploration*. 2017. Artist's book. Woodcut, letterpress, four-flap enclosure. Photo: Will Howcroft.

“Learning the art of wood engraving is basically a case of practice, practice, practice and looking at the work of other engravers. ”

— Abigail Rohere

Abigail Roher

Abigail Rorer studied etching and lithography at the Rhode Island School of Design. Following school she did pen and ink book illustrations and eventually went on to learn wood engraving, inspired by German Expressionists and Leonard Baskin. An expert in fine detail, she also practices the rare medieval art form of silverpoint drawing. Roher founded The Lone Oak Press in Petersham, MA in 1989 where she publishes limited edition, letterpress printed books and broadsides illustrated with her relief engravings and etchings. For Roher, nature is a constant inspiration. Her illustrations evoke profound awe. Her art and approach turn books into museum-worthy works of art.

Abigail Roher, unnumbered image - Title page from *Mimpish Squinnies,* a fine press book from The Lone Oak Press. (copyright) Abigail Rorer.

“Published in 2020—the 100 year anniversary of multilateralism as well as the establishment of passport standardization—with the passport’s increasing importance in the documentation and freedom of humans worldwide, [Nansen’s Pastport] is also an ode to one of the most powerful books in the world.”

— Anneli Skaar

Anneli Skaar

Anneli Skaar is a painter and book designer whose Scandinavian heritage and fascination with the arctic guides her practice and subject matter. A first generation American, she moved to Norway from the states to attend the National Academy of the Arts (Statens Håndverks-og Kunstindustriskole) in Oslo where she received her BA. She gathers material for her work from around the world, including Ilulissat, Greenland, at the site of the largest, active glacier in the northern hemisphere. In 2016 she participated in a residency aboard an EIMSKIP container ship traveling from Portland, ME to Reykjavik, Iceland. Her fine press artist books Nansen's Pastport (2020) and The Island Whale (2022) were published by Two Ponds Press.

Anneli Skaar, detail from *The Island Whale*.

Visit the Women to Watch section of the MA-NMWA website for more information on the Women to Watch exhibition series, A Book Arts Revolution, and this year’s artists.

Cover Image, Nansen’s Pastport by Anneli Skaar.