Interact at Minneapolis Central Library
In The Binding Is Just a Way to Keep It All Together, nineteen artists from the Interact studio explore bookmaking, narrative, and sequence.
Interact's debut exhibition at Minneapolis Central Library's Cargill Gallery gathers hand-bound volumes and small folded zines, repetitive paintings and stashes of paper, lines of poetry and stapled packets of text, to play with elements of story- and bookmaking.
Garrett Anderson's Squirrel series forecasts book covers for hundreds of publications that have yet to be made. Matt Zimdars's thick collage-texts catalogue severe weather events, future friends and romances, and favorite nostrils. Victor Van's KS95 artist books record hours of radio transcribed in sprawling pages filled with tiny handwriting. Shown amongst these more formally sequential works, Maria Kelleher's flower paintings, Jesse Ferdinand's allegorical figures, and Katie Bretzman's patchwork abstractions are like stills from films or dreams.
In each artist's work, a sort of narrative unfolds, whether across pages or frames, whether explicit or abstract. In the Interact studio, ideas are stacked, piled, taped, bound – coming together over the course of days, years, or decades. As studio facilitator Presley Martin points out, "the binding is just a way to keep it all together."
EXHIBITION DETAILS
The Binding Is Just a Way to Keep It All Together
June 6 – July 27, 2025
Cargill Gallery | Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55401
The gallery is on the second floor. It is free and open to the public during library hours. Learn more here.
EXHIBITION TOUR
Saturday, June 7, Noon – 1 p.m.
Free and open to the public. Join co-curators Colleen Harriss, Brittany Kieler, Presley Martin, and Jonas Specktor for an informal guided tour of the exhibition.
CLOSING RECEPTION & BOOK VIEWING
Thursday, July 24, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public. Join us for a closing reception that celebrates the nineteen artists included in the exhibition. There will also be an informal book viewing where visitors can see the insides of select publications by Interact artists.
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Garrett Anderson, Katie Bretzman, Mary Burdick, Kaia Burg, Annemarie Burns, Bill Crane, Koko Dehn, Michael Engebretson, Wulf Fenrir, Jesse Ferdinand, Sidney James, Maria Kelleher, Andie Kiley, D.D., Cyrus M., Caleb Nesbitt, Thomas Robinson, Victor Van, and Matt Zimdars.
Image descriptions:
(Top of page) A stack of hand bound artist books by Victor Van. There are books with red, black, pink, gold, teal, green, peach, and blue covers. The spines face the viewer. "Old Battleships" is the text on one of the most prominent spines. Another spine reads, "CODE GUNDAM MUSOU." Another reads, "GOLDEN BAT."
(Slider) (1) Three small books with thick, handbound spines by Victor Van are stacked one on top of the other. Handwritten text on their spines reads, "KS95 Minneapolis St. Paul." (2) A marker drawing by Katie Bretzman has patches of pink, red, black, blue, orange, yellow, purple, and black. They are drawn in a patchwork pattern across the whole page. (3) Handbound books are encased in a book box that is also handmade by Victor Van. A drawing on the front of the box and on the cover of one of the books shows a figure with peach skin and brown hair. Hand-drawn text on the front of the box reads, "Maria Valentina and the Mr. Piper Collection." (4) Kaia Burg's folded zine on white paper has black drawings. Hand-lettered text reads "Heart Person" on one of the pages. (5) Maria Kelleher's still life with two flowers shows them sitting in a black vase on a brown surface. The background is electric blue. Each flower has five petals. One flower has black petals, and the other has white petals. (6) Victor Van's handbound artist book has ballpoint pen drawings and small handwritten text on each page. The inside front cover is deep maroon. (7) The cover of Matt Zimdars's collaged book reads "Restless Skies." Many other words and phrases are collaged on the surface of the book. "WCCO," "ERIC S. MATT Z" and "Weather Watcher Network" are legible on the cover. The book stands upright, its pages splayed out. (8) Caleb Nesbitt's acrylic painting has handwritten text that reads "duluth, Minnesota" on the top. Nine figures are painted aboard the cars of a train that travels across a field of teal and black grass. Vehicles are parked in the distance. Flowers appear in the foreground. The sky above is bright blue with puffy white clouds.