05 BARE RIVER PRESS

Bare River Press is the independent publishing arm of the Great Basin Research Collective: a group started at the University of Utah with a grant from the Utah Museum of Fine Art. With this initial grant, we produced our book Abandon Shape which took the themes of “Sound, Sedimentation, Sanctuary” as the subject for the collection of writings, photographs, and artworks. Since then, our group has created, independently published, and distributed our second book Driftwind.

Our work is an unconventional kind of research for an increasingly unconventional world that faces complex global issues. We are a group of interdependent writers and artists exploring the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of life in the Anthropocene, as experienced on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. The work collected in our books functions as both activism and outlet: a method of researching and responding to the conditions of our world.

Building on my previous contributions of art and writing to our first book Abandon Shape, my contribution to Driftwind was the comprehensive design and illustration. After working with this group for several years, I was inspired to bring visual life to the thoughts and writing of my colleagues in the group and explore the role that graphics and illustration can play in the type of work we are building.

Selected spreads from Driftwind, 2023. The playful and sensitive design and illustration responds to the individual work of our authors: bringing the book into an eccentric but cohesive whole.

This project was an opportunity to explore the way that graphic contributes to the pathos of this type of publication that functions as both activism and outlet.

Outside of our publication work, our research group takes excursions to areas in the Great Basin, meets regularly to further our collective work, and collaborates on art and short films such as the one to the left.