Throughout the opus of Marilyn R. Rosenberg, working materials and final products have held a curious, sometimes whimsical, sometimes searching, sometimes unsettling, sometimes jovial, always engaging set of confluences back and forth through the stages of creation and display, and, at the same time, through a wide spectrum of genres. Motifs such as scissors and thread not only appear in the finished work, they also present the tools and materials used in its production. Thread tends to foreground itself in many works, not simply sitting in the background as a binding device, but boldly contributing to the look and feel of finished books. The scissors used in making books and visual poems may not be the same as those represented or fastened to the pages, but Rosenberg keeps them "in the picture" after they have done their job. Scissors lead to less obvious recurring motifs, such as keys. Simple connections include the car keys that transport the materials and finished pieces, as well as those used to get in and out of her studio, her home, the galleries in which works appear, etc. They can suggest opening things as ordinary as a house door, or access to strange and wonderful mysteries. However much symbolism a viewer might want to read into these motifs, they never lose their basic functions as tools, and even the books and poems can become tools in odd and unexpected ways: in many pieces Rosenberg recycles scraps from previous works. Symbolic interpretations may come to dead ends. In Rosenberg's art, the work always leads to something new.

The continuity through genres reveals both seriousness and insouciance, and perhaps a certain rebellion or at least resistance in their path. An avid book artist long before the genre became fashionable, Rosenberg's opus includes not only highly polished books, but also inexpensively produced works reminiscent of underground publications of all sorts, including photocopied micro-zines. While creating books meant to be displayed under glass in up-scale galleries, for many years Rosenberg engaged in a healthy participation in all sorts of mail art projects, including those of the most ephemeral nature. During the golden age of mail art, Rosenberg began working with her most important and enduring partner in collaborations, David Cole. We are pleased to present some of the collaborative work by the two artists at this site.

Only a small sampling of her own work appears at this site at present. We hope to include more as time passes. But what we have should suggest something of her range, her depth, her ability to move easily and gracefully through a spectrum that lead into spectrums that lead into further spectrums in an artistic field that never seems to wear thin in her hands.