Jo Dery asked me to turn her drawings – which she would use for an animation – into three circular books for her installation at the 2012 deCordova Museum Biennial. With a nod to the mutoscope, we went horizontal.

I made a draft using a double-needle coptic stitch seen below.

Then I tried a spring-action binding which allowed the pages to fan more evenly. We preferred this option. As I perfected my sewing technique after these first models, it became fun to obsessively tuck and gently tighten the stitching across the head as I sewed.

Jo finished her drawings, photographed them, and then delivered them to me from Chicago to bind. It can be slightly terrifying to handle someone’s original work while holding needles and scissors. But to be a part of such a gorgeous autobiographical work of a talented friend, is a sweet present.

There she is, putting the dice just so, right before the opening reception which, I think, everyone in the entire world attended.

And below is her amazing animation, entitled Chapter Three. Music by Work/Death.