New Jersey and Berkeley based artist, Kate Dodd presents, Incubator, a site-specific visualization of the enrichment a book-filled environment creates. The new commission was inspired by the artist’s multiple research trips at the Redwood City Library and current events.

“Growing up today, in a time of broken civil discourse and heightened anxiety about the future, the worlds that books present and the creative thinking they stimulate are needed more than ever to support imagining beyond current circumstances. The importance of books as a tool that women have used for centuries to develop their own voices, in spite of societal restrictions, resonates during Women’s History Month, the date for this installation.” Kate Dodd

Incubator is composed of approximately 5,000 thousand books, some of which are stacked, creating book “towers” supported by a “foundation” of books that celebrate women’s roles in both fiction and non-fiction. The voids between the towers are filled with Kate’s delicate hand cut paper network of words and images culled from these books that, visually connects the knowledge held within this micro library. As this paper network intensifies in size and complexity, it appears to rise and expand into a buoyant mass of potential, akin to the layering of ideas that accumulate from immersing oneself in books.

This exhibition received special support from Redwood City Public Library Director, Derek Wolfgram