Handmade
Hand-sewn, 5.5 x 8.5″, 14 p.
Paperback
Edition of 20
2021
For the 15th edition of Installments, Aaron Krach and Margaret Rizzio celebrate the new: New year, new president, new vaccines, new hope? Because the old problems aren’t going away so we should revel in the colorful detritus around us. “It’s a pop-up book for adults.” “It’s a collage, diary, collaborate exchange, readymade assemblage.” Not matter how you describe the 100% handmade book chock-full of image and text. This issue is filled with photos and paintings and birds and science cards circa 7th grade, stickers, rubber stamps of fish, old wedding photos, thrift store finds—and is bound in an envelope folded into a cover: more treats inside.
Since each “Installment” is a small edition (just 20!) every book is unique, variations in content and composition range. You may get a painting or a prize-winning pig, a Christmas tag circa 1960 or an eerie B&W baby picture circa 1910.
Installments #16, 2021
To celebrate 10 years collaborating, Rizzio and Krach expanded the 16th edition of Installments. The bookmaking / mail art project is multimedia, interdisciplinary and inconclusive. The artists combine pop-up book aesthetics, collage, diary exchange, daily news, assemblage, and a whole bunch of readymade ephemera.
As usual, Installments can barely contain itself, overflowing chock-full of image and text, color and content. This issue is past and present, wrinkling “fish” fortune-tellers and excerpts from After Dark magazine, Paw Patrol stickers and Premier League football trading cards. Amongst and below, on top and beside lay rubber stamps, stickers, collaged bits and drawings, as well as text about today’s headlines and questions about what makes a book a book. Each edition is handmade and unique, variations in specific content and composition will vary. Also inside: Shunga clips, Sno-cone cups, Covid-19 vaccination stickers, Polaroids, and artist postcards stamped and ready-to-mail.
Installments #18, 2023
by Margaret Rizzio and Aaron Krach
14” H x 8.5” W, mixed media, Edition of 21 (unique)
“This year we went supersize,” says Aaron. “Margaret found these amazing, old-school circular teaching tools to use as the pages. And my collection of materials overflowing with bits ranging from mid-century stamps, personal photos from the 2000s, and loads of collages and found ephemera.”