Ellen Sheffield is a visual artist whose work integrates text, image and the book form. She is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Institute of Art and The Ohio State University College of Law. Chosen for the Ohio Arts Council's Artist in Residence Program and the Greater Columbus Arts Council's Artists-in-Schools program, she has taught book arts workshops in schools and community centers throughout the state. Ellen's artist books are in many private collections including the Bienecke Library Collection at Yale University. The recipient of two Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships, she teaches book arts as a visiting instructor of art at Kenyon College.

Areas of Expertise

Language Based Sculpture and Artists Books

Education

The Ohio State University College of Law, Columbus, Ohio
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Courses Taught

Arts 192 Special Topic: Book Arts

Artist's Statement

My work explores the relations between language, materiality and time through small-scale hand held objects: sculptural books. I am interestd in setting up experiences that unfold on several levels. One level is the conflation of reading and looking. Another level is the shifting of the viewer's relationship to the object from the visual to the tactile. Various structural and narrative strategies are threaded through each piece to allow the works to reveal themselves over time. My intention is to direct the veiwer's movement through the work by organizing content in the form of groupings, series, sequences or narratives. I like the possibility that a sculpture with moving parts requiring opening, closing, touching, turning and holding, may allow the viewer to engage in a more intimate sensory relationship with the work.