Book pages provide the underlying armature for the works of Renée Bott. Her work is based on the minute and detailed lines found in etchings and engravings from the 17th century. She collects her source materials from museums, antique print dealers, and private collections. She photographs the prints and uses Photoshop to digitally modify the images, which serve as general outlines for her compositions which she renders with paint and ink upon the surface of the book pages. The horizontal redacting of some of the book text along with the overlay of the image creates a textile, almost tapestry-like experience.
The text’s content frequently provides inspiration for the image, and selectively lining out portions of the text with paint or ink allows for the development of a composition that becomes interwoven with the words. Common themes in the artist’s work stem from an appreciation for both engravings and handwritten cursive. These art forms, once essential tools for communication, have become largely obsolete, a concept that informs the work. Additionally, inspiration is drawn from science and contemplation of the natural world.
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Renée Bott has always made and worked in art. She worked in fine art print publishing for over 30 years. For the past twenty years, she was a founding partner and Master Printer of Paulson Bott Press, a fine print atelier located in Berkeley, California. Here she worked with luminary artists such as Martin Puryear, Kerry James Marshall, and Tauba Auerbach. Renée specialized in facilitating the creation of complex and colorful intaglio prints within a traditional black-and-white medium. Paulson Bott Press has published over 500 editions, working with many artists. In 2016, the archive of Paulson Bott Press was acquired by the deYoung Museum in San Francisco.