This month’s Artifact of the Month is an artist book from 1985 made by Ruth Laxson (2021.10.010). Laxson’s book is folded like an accordion and is comprised of six panels on an off-white paper with a neatly torn edge. The subject of these panels is a landscape of yellow, blue, purple, pink, and green scribbles and torn, adhered paper from which red strings sprout. In the upper third of the middle panels, flying blue and red hummingbirds have been stamped.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a sheet of Turkish marbled paper, ebru, made by Mustafa Esat Düzgünman in 1977 (2019.09.0010). This ebru example consists of three red tulips and four white tulips on a single green stem with leaves on a dark blue-green stone patterned background. Düzgünman signed in pencil to the right of the stem’s base. He was one of the foremost ebru makers of the 20th century along with his mentor, Necmeddin Okyay. Okyay revolutionized floral designs, çiçekli, with the new style eventually being named after him.