Writing Time, 2014
Jewel-book, silver, copper, brass, old map, handmade paper hand painted, old watch, brass nib. Brooch. 2.5 x 2.5 x .75 inches, unique. $710
Writing Time, a, Elisa PellacaniWriting Time, b, Elisa Pellacani  


  


Dreaming Time, 2014
Jewel-book, silver, copper, brass. handmade cotton paper, japanese paper. Brooch. 3.5 x 2.75 x .5 inches, unique. $775
Dreaming Time, Elisa Pellacani  


  


Quiero, 2013
Jewel-book, silver, copper, indian ruby, paper, ink, enamel. Pendant. The second cover can be opened to read the text inside, Binding adapted from Japanese binding, unique, 1.5 x 1.3 x .5 inches. $750
Quiero, b, Elisa PellacaniQuiero, a, Elisa Pellacani  

  

 


 
Stampa la notte, 2011
Pendant and Accordion book with instructions for “Printing the night/let’s print by night”, with original drawings in ink, pencil and watercolor on graving paper, printed covers, 2.14 x 2.14 x .39 inches (closed), Box painted and signed by the artist. The stamp is part of a little series of printing handles on different materials, the “jewel-book” is unique. $470

  



   


Su un tralcio d’edera, 2011
Inspired by the novel “All’insegna del buon corsiero” by the Italian writer Silvio D’Arzo (1920-1952) and dedicated to him on the 60th anniversary of his death. Cover is silver and brass, pages are rice paper, illustrated in ink and watercolor; text is an extract from the novel, where the principal character is walking “on a branch of ivy”. Box painted and signed by the artist, 2.34 x 2.14 x .75 inches. Can be used as a pendant, unique. $950

  



   


Looking for Alice, 2011
A silver and brass book-object, built with an old-clock box containing a magic wood with a little door where Alice’s rabbit seems to be looking for her, 6.5 x 5 x 1.5 inches, unique. $1500


  


Come cominciò, 2010
A little silver pendant-book, titled “A” like the beginning of something. This jewel-book speaks with Italian words about where my love for books started “down a tree” in the ground – the same place where it will end. With a ruby stone. 1.57 x .98 inches, edition of 10. $500

Come-comincio-Elisa-Pellacani

Come-comincio-b-Elisa-Pellacani  


 

Icaro, 2010
A silver and gold jewel-book, about the metaphoric beauty of flying. Two pages in the middle are in wing form, while the covers are like a porthole in the sky. The reference is to Icarus, who tried to fly but failed because of the heat of the sun. 1.18 x .79 inches, edition of 10. $550


  


Bring-roll paper, 2008
Silver, gold. $400

   


 
Loving Time, 2014
Jewel-book, silver, copper, paper. linoleum illustration. Brooch. 2 x 1.5 x .5 inches, unique. $820
Loving Time, b, Elisa PellacaniLoving Time, a, Elisa Pellacani

Project Time, 2014
Jewel-book, Silver, Paper-cut, Coptic binding, pencil. Pendant. 2.5 x 1.75 x .5 inches, unique. $380
Project Time, b, Elisa PellacaniProject Time, a, Elisa Pellacani
 

Il viaggio più lungo, 2013
Accordion, watercolor and ink, hand printed from a unique linoleum matrix, cover in textile and collage, 4 x 6 x .5 inches. Number 2 of an unlimited edition. $200
Il viaggio più lungo, a, Elisa Pellacani  


  


Libri sommersi, 2012
Jewel-book, silver, copper, enamel, hand colored paper, coptic binding. Brooch, unique, 2.5 x 1.75 x 1 inches. $300
Libri sommersi, Elisa Pellacani

My prisons – The Alice’s Rabbit Reading, 2009
A little illustrated accordion book about falling down a big hole and arriving in a strange world where everyone is building a book. It is a story about a passion for books, and about how is easy to fall into it. Printed on watercolor paper, limited and numbered edition; the rabbit is in silver and enamel. $480


La casa de los Pajaros – Bird-s House, 2008
The bird-s house is a forest, silver, enamel. $380

Secret Book, 2009
Brooche, silver, paper, stones. Selvatic roses keep a secret in a book. The heart speaks about the difficulty of keeping the book. $250

Paredes de Estrellas – Walls of Stars, 2009
A collection of jeweled-books about the difficulty of communication between people. The wall that separates is made of stars, because it is something too big but at the same time belongs to the same universe. Silver, ceramic, hand made paper, gold. $400.



Quaderno di viaggio in Oriente, 2007
Silver, gold, pergamin paper. Unique book. $250
quaderno di viaggio in oriente, elisa pellacani

Ex voto de amor, 2006
Silver, enamel. $300
ex voto de amor 2, elisa pellacani

Libro azul, 2008
Silver, gold, enamel, paper. $200
libro azul 2, elisa pellacani

Statement

Elisa Pellacani’s work is since many years based on the final production of books. She works on books thinking on the relationship between binding and message expressed in the pages. Working with photography, she needed to give to her catalogues the smell derived from the manual printing in the black room, putting on the catalogues touch of acrylic colours or details directly cut from the stamps. At the same time, she made little editions illustrated with collages, calligraphy, engraving and old-techniques of typography. Jewellery techniques gave her knowledge on using metallic materials and not only on papers; she started the realization of very strong books which was possible taking showers and sleeping with it, for a library easy to move. In the “Ex voto de amor” the pages are like little matrixes to be printed, engraved by etching and coloured by emelin. In “Le mie prigioni” the novel is drawed in ink and watercolours, while some characters are made in 3D, silver, gold and emalin, to make possible to touch and wear them. Derived from her studies in Anthropology, the objects-books of Elisa are many times made like symbols of the person using it and speak about forms of life in simples-manual-way of construction.

Biography

Born in Reggio Emilia, Italia, 03/16/1976. She’s currently living in Barcelona, Spain, where she’s teaching at the School of Art “Escola Massana” in the “Artist’s book and Object book” course since 2005. In the same town she has founded “Ilde” (acronym for “I libri de…”), an Association for the artists and authors about methods and realization of books; the last event organized was “Imagine book”, during the Saint George’s day on April 23th in a public place of the old town with the exposition of artist’s books and the participation of artists showing their works. With the Italian “Consulta, libri e progetti” Editions works since 2000 at the publishing of books, always looking at the relation between the project and the printing for limited series like the largest number of copies. Elisa Pellacani studied at the University of Parma (Italia) History of Contemporary Art. She developed her experience in journalism writing for galleries and catalogues and using photographic language in reportages about human situations in different parts of the worlds (India, Palestine, East Europe); at the moment she’s attending the Central University of Barcelona with a Major in Anthropology with a research on the artistic object (specifically the book), like the reflection of the human and not just the aesthetic resolution. Since always she made her own books, and she started making them more seriously attending book’s classes at the International Graphic Design School in Venice and at the editing and graphic school in Urbino (Italy), “I.S.I.A.”. At the School of Arts in Barcelona, “Escola Massana”, she studied illustration and she had experience with different plastic materials in a translation of her BI-dimensional world in books-objects.

Elisa Pellacani Website