Three willows bindery

COLOPHON: "completed June 14, 2012.

Archival pigment printing on Asuka paper, 75 gsm.

Designed, printed and bound in Denver, Colorado by Sammy Seung-Min Lee, Studio SML/k. Edition A.P. of 125"

Folded pages. Die cut, laser cut and hand bound. Printed by HP Indigo printer. Bound in paper-covered angled boards with a paper cutting adhered illustration on front board. Exposed sewn binding at top edge.

This book documents a project Sammy Lee did when a graduate student in architecture.

Sammy Lee: "My proposed design had a bookbindery, artist studios, and a community space. When I designed this building project … this lot was considered 'cursed' by the locals. There were an Asian grocery market and an adult media store hidden behind a billboard that always featured beer commercials. The land was covered with overgrown weeds, potholes, and trash. Despite its desolate condition at that time, I noticed three willow trees in the center lot, and felt somehow connected to the land and wanted to reinvigorate the site.

"There are many notions of three in this book. The land had overall a triangular shape, three willow trees, the building and the site incorporated three different flows of traffic — pedestrians, motorists, cyclists – and the project was for three women tenants (me and two friends). In the book, the idea of three is explored by three different shapes of sheets, three sections per viewing, and three pleats. Also there are images such as three willows, three friends, three mailboxes in the book. The shape of the book is the actual shape of the building site."

Sammy Lee, general statement: "[Three Willows Bindery] documents the personal narrative of discovering and reinvigorating a forgotten space. The book is comprised of three different types of geometric pages, varying in shape and size. Collated and bound together, the pages' contents can expand and interact in multiple permutations based on their folds, much like a map can be refolded in various ways. In addition to showing different views of the space, the pleats of the pages also resemble the topography of the land: the overall shape of the book mirrors the site."

Not signed.

Number: A.P./125.