Eileen Arnow-Levine
Softcover Artists Book: Offset Lithography, Cougar Natural Smooth 80 lb. Cover, Cougar Natural 70 lb. Opaque Text, staple saddle stitched , Edition of 200 , 5 unnumbered copies, 8.75” x 5.75”, $10.
Statement
She’s Fallen Down Dead is a book based on ideas and imagery that Eileen explored in the past and reinterpreted into one story. The story opens with a woman waking up dead at the bottom of the stairs. The narrative that follows is of the dead woman and a detective trying to discover the cause of her death. It unfolds as a satirical murder mystery that borrows from Film Noir and contemporary forensics dramas. Playing off these two genres, Eileen is able to comment upon such dark themes as dying before one’s time and having one’s life misunderstood in an entertaining context.
The front cover illustration, was inspired by a previous broadside, also entitled She’s Fallen Down Dead, that Eileen created for a group exhibition at The Center for Book Arts. The three paged illustrated vignette She’s Dead, the one panel, Deathbed, and two panels, M. Mann were early mail art and zine projects that inspired key themes to the book. The woman lying dead at the bottom of the stairs is Eileen as both the artist’s model and a self-portrait; a concept she previously explored in She’s Dead and her book Angst.
The illustrations were drawn in pencil and hand inked with a technical pen. They were scanned at 600 dpi and the front cover was colored in Adobe Photoshop. The cover is printed on acid free Cougar Natural Smooth 80 lb. Cover. The inside pages are printed on acid free Natural Smooth 70 lb. Cougar Text. The book is printed by offset lithography in Black ink and PMS 202 ink.
Biography
In 1984, Eileen received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York at Purchase. Eileen’s major was Drawing/ Painting. She also took courses in Design and Printmaking to broaden her visual arts background.
Eileen’s first job out of college was inking technical illustrations for textbooks; a skill she continues to apply to her own style of illustration. After a number of years of doing graphic design and illustration by hand, Eileen witnessed the beginning of the digital age as the graphic arts industry changed over to desktop publishing. Eileen followed suit and became proficient in InDesign, Quark Xpress, Photoshop and Illustrator. She is currently employed as a Graphic Designer.
Eileen creates artists books that she writes, illustrates and self-publishes. Intrigued by a seminar on independent publishing in college and her keen interest in illustration, Eileen created her first book, Death Made Simple in 1987, for an international mail art project. She continued to participate in mail art projects and the zine scene for over a decade.
Eileen makes illustrated chapbooks as well as limited handmade editions. Her narratives are often humorous and ironic stories or vignettes relating to death and morality. Eileen’s illustrations are high contrast black and white line drawings that evoke the look of children’s picture books.
On February 21st, 2008, Eileen had the honor of being one of three panelists at The Heckscher Museum of Art’s Voices and Visions Symposium at Book Revue, Huntington, New York. The symposium, Books As Art was a discussion on creating, reviewing and collecting artists’ books. Eileen is an artist member of The Center for Book Arts and a publisher member of The New York Center For Independent Publishing. Eileen’s books are part of The Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Collection and have been included in exhibitions and collections worldwide.
