Books are thresholds to unfamiliar worlds and can serve as bridges connecting diverse communities. Even before the age of printing, codices and books were crucial means of communication, and books persist as vehicles for exchanging information, ideas, stories, and emotions across time and space. They serve as platforms for collaboration between authors and readers, writers and their translators, and the creators of texts and images. During the pandemic, when many people were deprived of physical contact, ideas of the book as an intimate and haptic object with the power to open-up vast universes, encompassing both proximity and distance, have resonated in new ways.  Join us on Tuesday February 15th as artist Andi Arnovitz presents a new collaborative book that she worked on with Lynne Avadenka (USA), and Mirta Kupferminc (Argentina) and that was featured in the most recent Jerusalem Biennale.

Andi LaVine Arnovitz was born in 1959 in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated with a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. For many years, Andi worked in advertising as an art director, creating print campaigns and television commercials. She attributes the conceptual ideas behind many of her pieces to this work experience. Andi considers herself a printmaker, a paper-manipulator, a bookmaker and an assemblage artist. Her primary love is working with paper, printing on it, etching with it, drawing, sewing, tearing and repairing. Her pieces often reflect her love of pattern, surface, and thread she has had since she was child wandering through her father’s fabric store in Kansas City. In 1999 Andi and her family moved to Jerusalem, Israel. A two year sabbatical has become a permanent stay and much of her work is informed by the multitudinous differences of living in the Middle East. Of great concern to her are primary issues surrounding the differences between Jews and Arabs, between religious and non-religious, between Jewish law and contemporary society, between men and women, between young and old. Over and over these politics and tensions are explored, examined and dissected in her works. Andi has had numerous solo shows in Jerusalem, and recently one at Brandeis University, and at Yeshiva University Museum in NYC. Her work has been included in many group shows all over the world: in France, Spain, England, Poland, Canada, Israel, the United States, Lithuania, and Finland.

There is no fee, but please RSVP for planning purposes. This event is held virtually on Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the event. For more information, contact Program Director Ilene Tatro at itatro@cbisd.org.

CSP Partners: Beth Israel (San Diego, CA), Brotherhood Synagogue (Gramercy Park, NYC), Congregation Beth Shalom (Seattle, WA), Congregation B’nai Tzedek (Fountain Valley, CA), Congregation B’nai Israel (Tustin, CA), Jewish Collaborative of Orange County, CA, Shomrei Torah Synagogue (San Fernando Valley, CA), Temple Bat Yahm (Newport Beach, CA), Temple Beth El of South Orange County (Aliso Viejo, CA), Temple Beth Emet (Anaheim, CA), Temple Beth Ohr (La Mirada, CA), Temple Beth Tikvah (Fullerton, CA), Temple Beth Shalom (Needham, MA), Temple Beth Sholom (Santa Ana, CA), Temple Emanuel (Newton, MA), Town & Village Synagogue (NYC, NY), University Synagogue (Irvine, CA), Valley Beth Shalom (Encino, CA) & Walnut Street Synagogue (Chelsea, MA)