Bookmarks in the Pages of Life, Betye Saar; The Limited Edition Club; Zora Neale Hurston

Archive Label 2003: The African-American artist Betye Saar selected and illustrated this collection of six short stories by Zora Neale Hurston, and includes: Bone of Contention, Magnolia Flower, High John De Conquer, The Conscience of the Court, Mother Catherine, and Now You Cookin’ with Gas. Hurston has most often been associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the black cultural revolution of the 1920s. University-trained in anthropology, she collected folk tales, published novels, and wrote short stories, plays, and musical revues. Her attention to the vernacular of black folk culture of the time caused a furor among her peers. Regardless of the criticism, Hurston welcomed drama and publicity in her life, taking on many conflicting personas that continue to intrigue readers and biographers today. She was an intimate friend of Langston Hughes until they quarreled over rights to their co-written play, “Mule Bone.” Both authors contributed to the flowering of the Harlem Renaissance with such literary efforts as selections for the journal, Opportunity Magazine. Betye Saar also took on controversial subjects for her art. Beginning with the assemblages created in the late 1960s, the artist has deliberately incorporated stereotypical and derogatory images such as Aunt Jemima, Uncle Tom, and Little Black Sambo figures. She deconstructs racism through the transformation of negative stereotypes into positive images, noting the intent to transform a negative, demeaning figure into a positive, empowered warrior ready to combat servitude and racism. From a diverse ethnic background herself, Saar uses such things as bits and pieces from Mexican Christianity, Far Eastern religion, and African voodoo traditions to invent her own vocabulary from cultural artifacts, and claiming that her goal is to show cultural differences and universal similarities.