Age & Seduction: Karen Hymer

About the book

Age & Seduction: Karen Hymer

First Edition, 2018

Foreword by Ann Simmons-Myers

Softcover trifold with hand-sewn binding

Foil stamping on front and back

8 inches x 9.5 inches

56 pages

26 full-color plates

Offset lithography and binding by Arizona Lithographers

©Karen Hymer and Dark Spring Press, 2018; Foreword ©Ann Simmons-Myers, 2018

200 copies including 164 trade copies and 36 Collector’s Edition copies presented with an original signed and numbered photogravure created by the artist

Design and Layout by Andy Burgess and Dawne Osborne

Printing and binding by Arizona Lithographers

Trade edition $40; Collector’s Edition $135 (includes an original gravure print)

ISBN 978-0-9993408-3-7

To Order go to: https://lightartspace.com/shop/

About the images

Throughout her work, Karen Hymer intentionally brings the aging female body into view. The images presented in this artist’s debut monograph are culled from two of her recent series of photopolymer gravures: Remnants (2013-2016) and Flesh and Food (2015). Her series Flesh and Food was influenced by the intriguing cookbook Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses by Chilean writer Isabel Allende who states that food, like eroticism, starts with the eyes. Hymer’s images pair the body with foods believed to be aphrodisiacs. Fruits and vegetables, once young and luscious but now past their prime, are paired with bodies that display the evidence of age—speaking to us of the memories of youth and beauty.

Hymer’s series Remnants explores the relationship between the aging human body and the processes of decay in the natural world. By combining natural elements from the Sonoran desert with the human form, Hymer reveals hidden connections. Hymer states, “I grew up in the desert collecting dead animals, dried plants and rocks…Combining photography with printmaking, I emphasize the interplay of texture, pattern, light and shadow, working with the muted earth tones I know best.” In many of these images, Hymer exposes details typically hidden from sight, creating abstract representations that defy recognition. Devoid of context, these images cannot be confidently identified even as male or female, internal or external, healthy or marred. Each texture, crease, and coloration unapologetically marks the vagaries of time, an intimate testament to the mysteries of the aging body.

Colophon

First Edition, 2018

Published by Dark Spring Press, Tucson

To order a copy visit LightArtspace.com

All works presented in this publication are

photopolymer gravures created by Karen Hymer.

Plates 1-2, 5-23, and plate 26 are from the series Remnants (2013-2015).

Plates 3-4 and 24-25 are from the series Food and Flesh (2015).

Plates 7, 20, 21, 22 are hand-colored.

This first printing of the first edition is limited to 200 copies,

including 164 trade copies and 36 Collector’s edition

copies presented with an original signed and numbered

photopolymer gravure created by the artist.

Design and Layout by Andy Burgess and Dawne Osborne

Printing and binding by Arizona Lithographers

www.karenhymer.com

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

www.darkspringpress.com

978-0-9993408-3-7