The 2024 book, Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp, documents an artistic medium that has long been elusive in the wider art world. Pulp painting, or “colored pulp” as the authors and artists Lynn Sures and Michelle Samour redefine, finally receives its due in this impressive, coffee-table-scale art book. Full-page images of artwork take the spotlight and speak volumes on their own. Alongside, digestible essays consolidate the history and development of colored pulp, share diverse approaches from eighteen different artists, and highlight important collaborative studios.

I find it telling that artists, not art historians or curators, conceived and published this definitive resource. The medium of colored paper pulp has been outside of the mainstream, with techniques mainly shared from artist to artist. The book itself is an outgrowth of this spirit of sharing between the Pulparazzi collective, a group of artists organized by Beck Whitehead and Lynn Sures. They gathered in 2010 to share their pulp-painting knowledge, and the idea followed of a book showcasing contemporary artists working in colored pulp.

While there have been earlier essays on the subject, tucked away in exhibition catalogues and the like, Radical Pulp is the first significant publication outlining the history of the early innovators and colored pulp’s art historical context.1 The authors map out papermaking’s first shifts from surface to a medium for artmaking through the work of Douglass Morse Howell, Laurence Barker, Kenneth Tyler, and others. Readers also learn how well-known twentieth-century artists such as Helen Frankenthaler, Alan Shields, David Hockney, and Robert Rauschenberg engaged with colored pulp in the early stages of its development as an art medium.

The authors set the stage by documenting the medium’s trajectory, but the next question arises, why pulp? What is unique about colored pulp, why do artists choose it, and what can it do better than other mediums? First-person essays by artists about their practice give a range of answers. My favorite explanations come from Roberto Mannino who states: “unique to papermaking is the ability to create a sheet from an amorphous slurry of pulp; it is a precious dialogue with the nature of thing;”2 and from Michelle Samour who explains: “elastic and fluid, paper pulp is its own language with its own grammar and expressions.”3 Each artist also shares their technical approaches that are difficult to visualize by reading alone, so expect to be inspired rather than tutored on techniques.

Collaborative studios have been key to advancing pulp painting, and Radical Pulp spotlights six studios, their histories, contributions, and people. This section of the book makes it easy to see how the master papermakers at collaborative studios have pushed the potential of both colored pulp and the work by artists with whom they collaborate. Direct quotes from papermakers at studios such as Pace Paper, Dieu Donné, and RCIPP/Brodsky Center illustrate the remarkable synergy and innovation that can happen through the collaborative process.

Radical Pulp closes with a rich gallery of artwork by both established and emerging contemporary artists working with colored pulp. I appreciate how this book is image-heavy, because seeing art communicates on a different wavelength than written text. There is also a brief glossary; although it is not extensive, there is just enough to help those unfamiliar with more technical papermaking terms.

The trail-blazing publication of Radical Pulp paves the way for future books that could focus on other ways artists use hand papermaking as a medium. Three-dimensional paper art is one area that deserves a deeper look. There is a solid variety of sculptural works included in Radical Pulp, however the majority of the images are of two-dimensional artworks. Another area for exploration is how an artist’s fiber choice can be part of the concept and contribute context in a work of art. This can be anything from pulping up textiles that have meaning, to choosing culturally significant fibers or plants with their own unique aesthetics.

It is exciting and a huge relief to have a generous book like this for curators, collectors, students, and for papermaking artists like myself. Finally, the fine-art public can more easily understand colored pulp as a powerful artmaking medium in its own right.

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notes

1. For more, see Trudy V. Hansen, “Pulp and Possibilities: A Brief Look at Contemporary Paper Art,” in the exhibition catalogue Rags to Riches: 25 Years of Paper Art from Dieu Donné Papermill (New York: Dieu Donné Papermill, Inc., 2001), 13–20. And, Susan Gosin and Mina Takahashi, “Paper/ Print: A Partnership,” in the exhibition catalogue Paper/Print: American Hand Papermaking, 1960s to Today (New York: International Print Center New York, 2018), 4–18.

2. Roberto Mannino, in Lynn Sures and Michelle Samour, Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp (Ann Arbor: The Legacy Press, 2024), 187.

3. Michelle Samour, in Radical Paper, 207.

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