Minidewak (2013 Winter Book)
This piece was featured in the February 2023 issue of The Fore Edge, a quarterly newsletter from MCBA that highlights new artist’s books and zines for collections, universities, and libraries. If you are interested in receiving this newsletter, there is a sign up available here. Past featured pieces can be viewed here.
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. These two aspects of identity combine in Kimmerer’s recent book of essays, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. In a special partnership with publisher Milkweed Editions, MCBA’s 2013 Winter Book Minidewak reproduces four selected readings from Braiding Sweetgrass in a limited edition, handmade artist’s book.
A Potawatomi term, minidewak (literally, “they give from the heart”) refers to a ceremonial tradition of gift-giving, an expression of generosity and gratitude with its roots in nature’s cycle of plenty and scarcity. Kimmerer understands the minidewak as a living symbol of community, wherein “the well-being of one is linked to the well-being of all.”
Minidewak was produced at MCBA in two editions, each letterpress printed by master printer Monica Edwards Larson, with the assistance of Winter Book interns Ian Kolstad, Dan Shearen, Evelyn Miller, and Shark Shredder, with artistic direction from former Executive Director Jeff Rathermel. All illustrations are by Nate Christopherson. Both editions include letterpress printed text and imagery on Arches Text Wove, with titles set in Cresci and text set in Granjon.
*This item is eligible for a 10% membership discount.
Since 1988, Winter Book has engaged artists, designers, papermakers, printers, bookbinders and community volunteers in producing a handmade, limited edition artist’s book featuring poetry or prose by a Minnesota author or editor. The artistry and hand craftsmanship of each Winter Book makes it an avidly collected series, included in museum and rare book library collections across the country and around the world.
Winter Books of the past have featured such treasured Minnesota writers as Robert Bly, Louise Erdrich, Kevin Kling, Bill Holm, Louis Jenkins, Carol Bly, Larry Millett, Patricia Hampl, Judith Guest, Jon Hassler, and Bryan Thao Worra, among many others.
