This work is inspired by the landscape in Iowa and the form is based on archival maps that were made in the 1800s by immigrant settlers who arrived from European homelands. Many of these maps were on thin paper and tears forms on the folded edges. To conserve and repair the maps, people often adhered them to fabric as a material that offers stability for the fragile paper. When I first experienced this type of folded and repaired map from the 1800s, I held them in my hand and felt literal and figurative weight of them as objects that reflect cultural values and heritage.

In 2023, I printed a series of "maps" at the University of Iowa using the Vandercook press. This work is on Mohawk paper with oil based inks. I used a variety pressure printing techniques to create the images, all of which employed low-relief-drawings I make in handmade paper (flax fiber) while the sheets are being formed.

"What we have left" is my personal and emotional mapping of a specific place that shaped my life, a remnant oak savanna located in what is now City Park in Iowa City. The red map references leaves, the black map references the oak tree trunk and branches, and the yellow map references acorns.

Oil based inks on Mohawk, book cloth, adhesive

Jennifer Miller