I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings #1 - Laura E. Migliorino

Title- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings #1

Medium- Archival Ink Jet Print

Year- 2025

6x9 in | 12x18 in | 20x30 in - Unframed

The Hidden Life of Books

The book is a simple yet complex idea that has profound influence on culture,
society, and religion that transcends time and civilization. The book is a platform
or foundation for the studies of Humanities because it has so much power on the
course of the human life. The impact of books, and the knowledge contained
dictates human history, influences religious and political policy, supports the
powerful and inspires the repressed. In early book creation the relationship
between word and image was essential. The word spoke to the privileged, the
educated and the image informed the poor and illiterate, yet both groups needed
books to guide their lives.

I grew up with books; my mother was a voracious reader, and raised her children
to cherish books. The book is a living memoir, a repository of memory and
meaning that goes beyond the story that lay within. My work captures the
physical body of the book as if it is a living figure with a spine, the leather cover is
skin, and the pages flesh. The physical traits reflect the life of the book, both
good and bad, exposing bumps, bruises, withering age, or a child’s scribble. How
often have you found a special memento in the pages of a book that floods your
senses with memories?

The Hidden Life of Books explores various book collections.
*Chapter I-The American Academy in Rome
*Chapter II- The James Weldon Johnson Foundation Archives
*Chapter III-The Tretter Collection of GLBTQIA + at The University of Minnesota
*Chapter IV- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and The Americans
*Chapter V- Banned Books
*Chapter VI- Accidental Book Marks

Bio