Book Review of "Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp" Published in Hand Papermaking Magazine

I’m honored to have reviewed the recently published book Radical Paper: Art and Invention with Colored Pulp for the summer 2025 issue of Hand Papermaking magazine.

Here’s a excerpt from my book review:

“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 defnitive 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…”

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Read my full review in the Summer 2025 issue of Hand Papermaking:

And here’s the direct link to purchase Radical Paper: