Known for her creative and probing use of language in the literary sense, Ruth Laxson’s works also have deep visual appeal. The non-linear text sometimes becomes the image.
She aims to prick the conscience of those in power and takes on the world when she tackles politics and religion. She uses language as a working material and is always aware of its flexibility and the ways in which it renews itself to accommodate the changing times.

Her involvement with language has also included experimental sound, the music of speech, found sounds and inventions with the voice. She has worked with etching, printmaking, drawing and some painting before discovering her latent skills as a writer and poet, and produced her first artist’s books in 1980. Her artist’s books immediately drew the attention of critics and scholars and began to set new standards.

In 2003, the Rhode Island School of Design Library asked Laxson to build an archive of the process working papers from her artist books oeuvre for use by students and faculty. This is an on-going process. It includes some of her research and various related materials.

Biography courtesy of Ruth Laxson

Poet, Writer

Atlanta

Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA (1958-1965)

Residency, Nexus Press, Atlanta, GA, USA (2000) Center for Government Research (CGR) Scholarship, The Hambidge Center, Ruben Gap, GA, USA (1998) Resident Fellow, The Hambridge Center, Ruben Gap, GA, USA (1995)

MEASURE-CUT-STITCH, Press 63 Plus, Atlanta, GA, USA (1987)

The Book as Art: Twenty Years of Artists' Books from the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Book as Art VI