Letters are not dead! is a handmade paper exchange that draws its inspiration from letters written between loved ones, letters exchanged between writers, poets and editors, letters sent between friends or strangers(!), and many other types of correspondence. 

In her book, Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives, Susan Howe writes about spending days, weeks, and months, sifting through the archives of writers who inspired her: William Carlos Williams, Emily Dickinson, Hart Crane, Gertrude Stein. She describes flipping through folders filled with letters, diaries, notebooks, essays, and so on. Sometimes clothes and other objects the writers collected and touched are kept in the archive as well. The ability to touch the papers and things these significant writers had touched – seeing their personal handwriting, their manuscripts, their edits, cross-outs and re-writes – creates an almost mystical sense of closeness with the letter-writer. It is the hope of Letters are not dead! portfolio organizers that this closeness inspired papermakers to create editions for this portfolio call.

All portfolio participants created an edition inspired by letter writing, whether that be in the material they choose to create their handmade paper from – i.e. junk mail, recycled paper, recycled manuscripts(!), or letters of corresponded sacrificed to the paper gods. Participants’ paper artwork also includes imagery inspired by letter writing – using images, text, handwriting, and papermaking techniques such as pulp painting or watermarks to create a visual response to the exchange’s letter-writing theme. Letters are not dead! was inspired by many aspects of the 2022 North American Hand Papermakers annual conference theme, Activating Materials.

Participating artists were responsible for completing an edition of 18 and received 12 collated pieces from the other participants in return. The other 4 pieces in the edition were included in portfolio sent to the NAHP archive, a display portfolio for NAHP Exhibitions, a portfolio to gift to the hosting conference venue, and a portfolio to auction in support of NAHP programing.