Working the Remanent: Artist Talk with Alisa Banks
Presented in partnership with Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) as part of Handwork 2026.
In this intimate, conversational program, internationally recognized book artist Alisa Banks will explore how stories, memory, and history shape her ongoing quest to forge connections with her cultural heritage. Through what she calls “root reading,” Banks investigates the remnants—material, historical, and emotional—that have survived displacement and erasure, using them as pathways back to identity, lineage, and place.
Moderated by BIMA’s curator of the Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection, Erin Zona, Banks will discuss how her artist’s books and fiber-based works emerge from excavations of memory, cultural tradition, and archive. She will highlight several pieces that demonstrate her use of novel, intentional structures—including sculptural bindings, textile collages, and works incorporating hair, cloth, plant matter, and soil—to challenge both artist and audience to imagine new, unconventional ways of reading.
Banks’s work, held in major collections including the Smithsonian Institution, the British Library, and BIMA’s Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection, insists that stories are not confined to written language. Instead, they can be held in materials, gestures, rituals, and the tactile knowledge passed from hand to hand across generations. She is also a featured artist in BIMA’s ongoing video series, Artists’ Books Unshelved.
An audience Q & A and reception to follow.
About the Handwork Week 2026 BARN Workshop: Speak Your Piece: Artist's Books with Meaning
Together, BIMA and BARN are partnering to bring audiences and makers closer to contemporary book arts through both public dialogue (at BIMA) and hands-on creative exploration (at BARN).
Leading up to this talk, Banks will have led a five-day master workshop at BARN— “Speak Your Piece: Artist’s Books with Meaning” (April 27–May 1, 2026)—guiding participants in transforming personal stories into sculptural books through bookbinding, printmaking, material exploration, and narrative development.
About the Artist
Alisa Banks (she/her) is a visual artist living in Dallas, Texas, who investigates alternative modes of reading through the use of culturally charged materials, including fibers and found objects. Alisa’s artist’s books, writings, and textile collages have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and are housed in several private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, the US Library of Congress, The Schomburg Center, The British Library, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Cynthia Sears Collection of the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Alisa holds a B.S. degree in Medical Laboratory Science from Oklahoma State University and a M.F.A. degree in Visual Art from Texas Woman’s University.
Follow Banks on Instagram: @abanksart
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3436478-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3436478-2
