Rachel Marks: Naturae Liber

Paris-based artist Rachel Marks‘ new installation in the Bridge Space creates an immersive installation in which families will be invited to see and hear the story of the unnatural forest. With each step into this otherworldly plant life, objects seem familiar yet peculiar. A once recognizable structure, the book, becomes overthrown with cutting, ripping, painting, sanding, and stacking, transforming to create vegetation, vines growing and fungi popping out of windowed portholes. This site-specific installation of a peaceful forest is completely constructed head-to-toe from donated used books. The viewers are invited to walk down the paper trail and immerse themselves in the tranquil and calming environment. Naturae Liber features tree trunks created from old book covers, a waterfall created from hundreds of attached pages, live foliage hanging from the ceiling, and delicate paper mushrooms growing out from the walls and windows.

Naturae Liber, Latin for free nature or book nature, addresses the exchange of knowledge within the forest as well as our relationship with nature. Latin, the root language of the languages present within the reclaimed book pages, takes both the content and the book object back to its natural source. The different languages and subjects found on the pages here work together in harmony to sustain this forest community. This fully immersive installation tells the story of how the trees communicate and share together like a living library.

Rachel Marks is an American artist, performer and dancer living and working in Paris. Her background in dancing with the Oklahoma City Ballet transposes into her performances, where she uses dance as an artistic medium in her work. Rachel’s work looks at the relationship between nature and language. Her practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, and her works and performances are regularly shown in France as well as internationally.